Level: beginner
Transitive verbs have both active and passive forms:
| Active | Passive |
|---|---|
| The hunter killed the lion. | The lion was killed by the hunter. |
| Someone has cleaned the windows. | The windows have been cleaned. |
Passive forms are made up of the verb be with a past participle:
| Subject | be | Past participle | Adverbial |
|---|---|---|---|
| English | is | spoken | all over the world. |
| The windows | have been | cleaned. | |
| Lunch | was being | served. | |
| The work | will be | finished | soon. |
| They | might have been | invited | to the party. |
If we want to show the person or thing doing the action, we use by:
She was attacked by a dangerous dog.
The money was stolen by her husband.
- Active and passive voice 1
- Active and passive voice 2
- Active and passive voice 3
Level: intermediate
The passive infinitive is made up of to be with a past participle:
The doors are going to be locked at ten o'clock.
You shouldn't have done that. You ought to be punished.
We sometimes use the verb get with a past participle to form the passive:
Be careful with that glass. It might get broken.
Peter got hurt in a crash.
We can use the indirect object as the subject of a passive verb:
| Active | Passive |
|---|---|
| I gave him a book for his birthday. | He was given a book for his birthday. |
| Someone sent her a cheque for a thousand euros. |
She was sent a cheque for a thousand euros. |
We can use phrasal verbs in the passive:
| Active | Passive |
|---|---|
| They called off the meeting. | The meeting was called off. |
| His grandmother looked after him. | He was looked after by his grandmother. |
| They will send him away to school. | He will be sent away to school. |
- Active and passive voice 4
- Active and passive voice 5
Level: advanced
Some verbs which are very frequently used in the passive are followed by the to-infinitive:
| be supposed to | be expected to | be asked to | be told to |
| be scheduled to | be allowed to | be invited to | be ordered to |
John has been asked to make a speech at the meeting.
You are supposed to wear a uniform.
The meeting is scheduled to start at seven.
- Active and passive voice 6
- Active and passive voice 7
Hello Mansoor Banglani,
'Grow' here is an intransitive verb (it has no object) and so no passive voice is possible.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hi Prap,
Neither 'want' nor 'think' are intransitive verbs because they can both take an object ('I want some tea', 'I think thoughts'). That said, it is a bit unusual to use them passively. You can say 'This child is wanted' or 'It is thought that', but these are not used in a general context as an alternative to the active voice.
You could make the second clause of (i) passive and get a natural-sounding sentence: 'I wanted that to be done a week ago'. A passive version of (ii) ('What will be thought if we are late again?'), however, is very strange indeed, precisely because this kind of question is focusing on the person who does the thinking, and that person is de-emphasised in the passive voice.
I hope this helps.
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello fernandoricagno,
Give is an example of a very with two objects, one direct (her in your example) and one indirect (a cheque). This verb can form active sentences in two ways (I'll simplify your example to make the explanation clearer):
The passive form is different for each:
You can read a detailed explanation of why this is the case on this page if you're interested in the grammatical justification.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello sandyA,
I think two changes are needed. First of all, we would not use 'is' here but (depending on the context) you could say has arisen. Second, you would need an article so you would say either an issue or the issue, again depending on the context.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hi gusanodvr,
I'm afraid we don't provide this kind of service. We're happy to provide help and explanations of our own materials, or to help where we can with more general questions about the language or culture, but we don't check materials from elsewhere. If we tried to do this then we would end up doing our users' tests and homework for them, which is not our role. In any case, we are a small team here and we simply don't have the resources to provide this kind of service.
If the exercise is from a book then a key should be provided. If a teacher gave it to you then the teacher should check it.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hi Amanda,
Both sentences are fine. The position of the phrase for being late is flexible.
The phrase is an example of a prepositional phrase. This is made up of a preposition (for) and an object (being late). Prepositional phrases can have adjectival or adverbial functions in the sentence and in your example it has an adverbial function.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Prap,
Neither sentence is incorrect but the first sentence sounds more natural to me. The passive form is more often used with 'there' as the subject. I think these three forms are most likely here:
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Arvind Kumar Singh,
The verb in this sentence should be in the past simple ('were replaced') instead of the present perfect ('have been replaced') since the action took place in a finished past ('last night').
The active voice of the sentence with the past simple would be 'The grocer replaced the goods last night'.
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello MilaTong,
Yes, you can say that. It is a grammatically correct sentence.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Arvin,
No, there is no difference in meaning, though the second one would sound inappropriate in formal situations. But there is no difference in meaning.
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Andrew international,
We use a prepositional phrase with 'by' to indicate the agent of a passive verb action, and a prepositional phrase with 'with' to show the tool or method used to perform the act. The agent does not have to be a person:
Best wishes,
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Andrew international,
You need to quote the whole sentence here, not just a part of it:
The subject here is some verbs very frequently used in the passive. The verb is the passive form are followed and there is a prepositional phrase with by to show the agent (the doer of the action).
You can think of it as having a reduced relative clause:
Best wishes,
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Andrew international,
Yes, both are correct. The context can make a difference sometimes, but in most cases there is probably no real difference in meaning. The continuous form (in sentence 2) could make the desire seem a bit stronger, but probably in most cases there is no difference.
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Andrew international,
In this case, 'are' is a verb and 'developed' is an adjective formed from the past participle -- this is not a passive construction. Here 'developed' means something that has already been developed whereas 'developing' means it is still in the process of being developed.
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Andrew international,
Passive construction do not have to have an agent; in fact, many times the point of a passive construction is to not discuss the agent or to draw attention away from them. Therefore I'm afraid I can't say whether it is a passive construction or the verb 'be' + an adjective (an adjective that is formed from the past participle of the verb 'develop') without seeing the context. If you can supply the context then we can help you see how this works.
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello aseel aftab,
We use 'would' here as a polite form. 'Will' is also possible, but is rather less formal/polite:
Best wishes,
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello naaka,
In most contexts it would be 'showing'. It is something of an idiomatic use which we do not see in other contexts, so a play is 'being performed' and an art exhibition is 'being shown', but a film is 'showing'.
Best wishes,
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team