The passive

1 Forms: use be + past participle to form the passive

Active Passive
Present Simple (verb in the Present
Simple)
e.g.: * The police arrest thieves every week.

*Somebody cleans the room every day.
Present Simple (am/is/are + past
participle)
e.g.: * Thieves are arrested by the police
every week.
* The room is cleaned every day.
Present continuous (am/is/are + verb
ing)
e.g.: * The police are arresting a thief at the
moment.
* Somebody is cleaning the room at the
moment.
Present continuous (am/is/are being +
past participle)
e.g.: * A thief is being arrested by the police
at the moment.
* The room is being cleaned at the
moment.
Past Simple (verb in the Past Simple)

e.g.: * The police arrested a thief last week.
* Somebody cleaned the room
yesterday.
Past Simple (was/were + past participle)
e.g.: * A thief was arrested by the police last
week.
* The room was cleaned yesterday.
Past continuous (was/were + verb ing)

e.g.: * The police were arresting a thief when
I arrived in the shop.
* Somebody was cleaning the room
when I arrived.
Past continuous (was/were being + past
participle)
e.g.: * A thief was being arrested by the
police when I arrived in the shop.
* The room was being cleaned when I
arrived.
Present Perfect Simple (have/has + past
participle)
e.g.: * The police have just arrested a thief.

* The room looks nice. Somebody has
cleaned it.
Present Perfect Simple (have/has been +
past participle)
e.g.: * A thief has just been arrested by the
police.
* The room looks nice. It has been
cleaned.
Past Perfect Simple (had + past participle)

e.g.: * There was a crowd in front of the
shop. The police had arrested a thief.
* The room looked nice. Somebody had
cleaned it.
Past Perfect Simple (had been + past
participle)
e.g.: * There was a crowd in front of the
shop. A thief had been arrested by the police.
* The room looked nice. It had been
cleaned.
Future (will/shall + infinitive or am/is/are
going to + infinitive)
e.g.: * The police are going to arrest the thief.

* Somebody will clean the room later.
Future (will/shall be + past participle or
am/is/are going to be + past participle)
e.g.: * The thief is going to be arrested by the
police.
* The room will be cleaned later.

Modals (can/could/may/might/must/ have
to/should + infinitive)
e.g.: * The police have to arrest the thief.

* Somebody can clean the room.
* The situation is serious. We must do
something.
* You should call the doctor.
* The music was very loud. You could
hear it from a long way away.
Modals (can/could/may/might/must/ have
to/should be + past participle)
e.g.: * The thief has to be arrested by the
police.
* The room can be cleaned.
* The situation is serious. Something
must be done.
* The doctor should be called.
* The music was very loud. It could be
heard from a long way away.

Infinitives
Be + past participle
e.g.: * Please go away. I want to be left alone.
* The meat is ready to be cooked.

Present participles
Being + past participle
e.g.: * I remember being taken to the zoo when I was a child. (= I remember somebody
taking me to the zoo when I was a child.)
* Steve hates being kept waiting. (= He hates people keeping him waiting.)
* I managed to climb over the wall without being seen (= without anybody seeing me)
* I dont like being told what to do. (= I dont like people telling me what to do.)
2 USE
1. When we use an active verb, we say what the subject does.
e.g.: - My grandfather was a builder. He built this house in 1935.
- Its a big company. It employs two hundred people.

When we use a passive verb, we say what happens to the subject.
e.g.: - This house is quite old. It was built in 1935.
- Two hundred people are employed by the company.

2. When we use the passive, who or what causes the action is often unknown or
unimportant.
e.g.: - A lot of money was stolen in the robbery. (somebody stole it, but we dont know
who)
- Is this room cleaned every day? (its not important who)

If we want to say who does or what causes the action, we use by.
e.g.: - This house was built by my grandfather.
- Two hundred people are employed by the company.










3. Some verbs can have two objects, for example give:
e.g.: - Somebody gave the police the information. (= Somebody gave the information
to the police.)
So it is possible to make two passive sentences:
The police were given the information.
The information was given to the police.

Other verbs which can have two objects are: ask, offer, pay, show, teach, tell.
When we use these verbs in the passive, most often we begin with the person.
e.g.: - I was offered the job, but I refused it. (= they offered me the job)
- You will be given plenty of time to decide. (= we will give you plenty of time to
decide)
- Have you been shown the new machine? (= Has anybody shown you the new
machine?)

4. I was born. (not I am born.)
e.g.: - I was born in Chicago.
- Where were you born?

But: How many babies are born every day?

5. Get
You can use get instead of be in the passive (informal spoken English).
e.g.: - There was a fight at the party, but nobody got hurt. (= nobody was hurt)
- I dont often get invited to parties. (= Im not often invited)