Passive Voice

We only use the passive when we are interested in the object or when we do not know who caused the action.

Example: Appointments are required in such cases.

We can only form a passive sentence from an active sentence when there is an object in the active sentence.

Form

to be + past participle

How to form a passive sentence when an active sentence is given:
- object of the "active" sentence becomes subject in the "passive" sentence
- subject of the "active" sentence becomes "object" in the "passive" sentence" (or is left out)

Active:	Peter	builds	a house.

Passive:	A house	is built	by Peter.

Examples

Active	Peter	builds	a house.	Simple Present

Passive:	A house	is built	by Peter.

Active:	Peter	built	a house.	Simple Past

Passive:	A house	was built	by Peter.

Active:	Peter	has built	a house.	Present Perfect

Passive:	A house	has been built	by Peter.

Active:	Peter	will build	a house.	will-future

Passive:	A house	will be built	by Peter.

Active:	Peter	can build	a house.	Modals

Passive:	A house	can be built	by Pete

We have listed active and passive forms in the following table.
We used the phrase I drive and have put this phrase into most common tenses.

Active (Simple Forms)
Simple Present	I drive
Simple Past	I drove
Present Perfect	I have driven
Past Perfect	I had driven
will-future	I will drive
Future Perfect	I will have driven
Conditional I	I would drive
Conditional II	I would have driven

Active (Progressive/Continuous Forms)
Simple Present	I am driving
Simple Past	I was driving
Present Perfect	I have been driving
Past Perfect	I had been driving
will-future	I will be driving
Future Perfect	I will have been driving
Conditional I	I would be driving
Conditional II	I would have been driving

Passive (Simple Forms)
Simple Present	I am driven
Simple Past	I was driven
Present Perfect	I have been driven
Past Perfect	I had been driven
will-future	I will be driven
Future Perfect	I will have been driven
Conditional I	I would be driven
Conditional II	I would have been driven

Passive (Progressive/Continuous Forms)
Present	I am being driven
Past	I was being driven
Present Perfect ¹	I have been being driven
Past Perfect ¹	I had been being driven
Future ¹	I will be being driven
Future Perfect ¹	I will have been being driven
Conditional I ¹	I would be being driven
Conditional II ¹	I would have been being driven

¹ Tenses which are rarely used in everyday conversation.

Here you will find some examples of how to form the passive depending on the tense.

tense	active	passive
Simple Present	Peter builds a house.	A house is built by Peter.
Simple Past	Peter built a house.	A house was built by Peter.
Present Perfect	Peter has built a house.	A house has been built by Peter.
Past Perfect	Peter had built a house.	A house had been built by Peter.
will-future	Peter will build a house.	A house will be built by Peter.
going to-future	Peter is going to build a house in summer.	A house is going to be built in summer by Peter.

Active sentences with two objects in passive

When there are two objects in an active sentence, there are two possible active sentences and two possible passive sentences.

possibility 1: The professor gave the students the books.
possibility 2: The professor gave the books to the students.

There are two objects in each of the following sentences:
object 1 = indirect object: the students
object 2 = direct object: the books

An indirect object is very often a person, a direct object a thing. When a direct object is followed by an indirect one, we put to in front of the indirect object.

active sentence - possibility 1
subject	verb	indirect object	direct object
The professor	gave	the students	the books.

active sentence - possibility 2
subject	verb	direct object	indirect object
The professor	gave	the books	to the students.

Each of the objects (direct and indirect) can be the subject in the passive sentence.

passive sentence - possibility 1
subject	verb	object	(by-agent)
The students	were given	the books.	(by the professor).

passive sentence - possibility 2
subject	verb	object	(by-agent)
The books	were given	to the students	(by the professor).

Possibility 1 is sometimes called Personal passive

Passive sentences with by

We are normally not interested in the "doer" of an action in a passive sentence. When we want to mention the "doer", we use the preposition by. The whole phrase is called by-agent in English.

Active sentence	Passive sentence
Mr Brown built the house.	The house was built by Mr Brown.

When we do not know, who was the "doer" of the action, we use someone or somebody in the active sentence. We leave out these words in the passive sentence.

Active sentence	Passive sentence
Someone stole my bike.	My bike was stolen.

Questions in Passive are formed with to be and the past particple.

1a. Questions without question words in Passive (Simple Present)

Form of to be	Subject	past participle	Rest	Yes/No	Subject	Auxiliary (+ n't)
Is	the test	written	in room 311?	Yes,	it	is.
				No,	it	is not.
				No,	it	isn't.
Are	grapes	grown	in California?	Yes,	they	are.
				No,	they	are not.
				No,	they	aren't.

1b. Questions with question words in Passive (Simple Present)

Question word	Form of to be	Subject	past participle	Rest	Answer
Where	is	the test	written?		The test is written in room 311.
Why	are	grapes	grown	in California?	Grapes are grown in California because it's warm and sunny.

2a. Questions without question words in Passive (Simple Past)

Form of to be	Subject	past participle	Rest	Yes/No	Subject	Auxiliary (+ n't)
Was	the book	taken	to the classroom?	Yes,	it	was.
				No,	it	was not.
				No,	it	wasn't.
Were	the students	taught	at home?	Yes,	they	were.
				No,	they	were not.
				No,	they	weren't.

2b. Questions with question words in Passive (Simple Past)

Question word	Form of to be	Subject	past participle	Rest	Answer
Where	was	the book	taken?		The book was taken to the classroom.
Why	were	the students	taught	at home?	The students were taught at home because the school was closed.

Here are some more example in other tenses. Let's start with the Simple froms:

Tense	Auxiliary	Subject	Verb
Present Perfect	Has	the house	been built?
Past Perfect	Had	the house	been built?
will-future	Will	the house	be built?
going to-future	Is	the house	going to be built?
Future Perfect	Will	the house	have been built?
Conditional I	Would	the house	be built?
Conditional II	Would	the house	have been built?

And now two Progessive forms:

Tense	Auxiliary	Subject	Verb
Present Progressive	Is	the house	being built?
Past Progressive	Was	the house	being built?

1) Personal Passive

When we put an object of an active sentence into passive, it becomes subject of the passive sentence.

Active voice:
The professor gave the students the books.
The professor gave the books to the students.

Passive voice:
The students were given the books.
The books were given to the students.

We sometimes use a pronoun for "the students" or "the books" in its subject form (here: they).

Passive voice:
They were given the books.
They were given to the students.

We very often leave out the by-agent in the passive sentence (here: by the professor).

2) Impersonal Passive - It is said ...

The phrase It is said ... is an impersonal passive construction. We often use it in news.

Passive sentence - version 1:
It is said that children are afraid of ghosts.

Passive sentence - version 2:
Children are said to be afraid of ghosts.

The correct active sentence would be:
Active sentence: People say that children are afraid of ghosts.

Verbs with prepositions in passive

When we put an active sentence, where a preposition follows after the verb (e.g. break into, look after), into passive - the preposition remains immediately after the verb.