Passives

Do you know how to use the passive voice to change the focus of a sentence?

Look at these examples to see how the passive voice is used.

A lot of olive oil is produced in Italy.
This book was written by Angela Davis.
The suspect will be released tomorrow.
This product has not been tested on animals.

Try this exercise to test your grammar.

Grammar test 1: Grammar B1-B2: Passives: 1

Read the explanation to learn more.

Grammar explanation

We use the passive voice to change the focus of the sentence.

My bike was stolen. (passive – focus on my bike)
Someone stole my bike. (active – focus on someone)

We often use the passive:

when we prefer not to mention who or what does the action (for example, it's not known, it's obvious or we don't want to say)
so that we can start a sentence with the most important or most logical information
in more formal or scientific writing.

How we make the passive

We make the passive using the verb be + past participle. We start the sentence with the object.

Avatar	was	directed by James Cameron.
↓	↓	↓
Object	+ be +	past participle

It is not always necessary to add who or what did the action.

My flight	is	cancelled.
↓	↓	↓
Object	+ be +	past participle

Only the form of be changes to make the tense. The past participle stays the same. Here are examples of the passive in its most common tenses.

Tense	Example	Structure
Present simple	Alioli is made from oil, garlic and salt.	is/are + past participle
Present continuous	The hall is being painted this week.	is/are being + past participle
Past simple	John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963.	was/were + past participle
Past continuous	The signs were being put up last week.	was/were being + past participle
Present perfect	Oranges have been grown here for centuries.	has/have been + past participle
Past perfect	When he got home, he found that his flat had been burgled.	had been + past participle
Future simple	The work will be finished next week.	will be + past participle

Do this exercise to test your grammar again.

Grammar test 2: Grammar B1-B2: Passives: 2

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Language level

B1 English level (intermediate)

Hello Kaisoo93,

You can reformulate sentences such as these to have a subject and a finite verb form, but it is not always passive. Depending on the context, an active form may be required:

Where to go is your decision

> Where you go is your decision

Your second example also likely requires an active form:

How much money we/they/the government should allocate depends on...

Peter

The LearnEnglish Team

Hi there, thank you for the informative posts as ever. I think that the table should be updated so that it says "have/has been + past participle" in the present perfect row. One of my students read it and got confused. Many thanks

Hi danohara,

I've updated the table now. Thanks so much for letting us know about the correction :)

Jonathan

The LearnEnglish Team

Sir, Bicycles are made here since the year 2000. Bicycles have been made here since the year 2000. Which sentence is correct and if both are correct then what is the difference ?

Hello SonuKumar,

The second sentence is correct as you are describing an action which began in the past and continues to the present.

Peter

The LearnEnglish Team

To ask a following question about what I asked before, Another similar usage came up to me was that, why that we more often say “things have changed” but not “things are changed”?

Hello Fiona,

Both forms are possible, depending on the context, of course.

The present perfect (have changed) is used when we are talking about the present result of a past action or event.

The present simple passive (are changed) tells us about the current situation. Normally, it does not necessarily mean that there is something different about the present as compared to the past. However, the verb 'change' already contains this meaning, so we have a situation in which the lexical item (the word) carries meaning which is normally part of the verb form. Even so, the present perfect is more common, with change as much as with other verbs.

Peter

The LearnEnglish Team

Dear Team, "are/is called" or "have/has been called" What is the difference? When to use each? Thanks

Hello DaniWeebKage,

The first form is a present simple form and the second is a present perfect form. There's an explanation of the different uses of these forms in the Present tense section of our English grammar.

If you have any other specific questions, please let us know.

All the best,

Kirk

The LearnEnglish Team

Hi, I have a question and I hopes the learnEnglish team to answer me. In grammar test 2, in the example which it says, someone _ my wallet and left at reception, here the correct answer is " had found" ok, although the structure here is had been+ past participle, then how it used had found. Thanks for you.

Hello Pola,

This page is about how to correctly form and also use the passive voice. It's not correct to use it in a sentence like this one, and that's what this question is testing.

If you already knew this, that's great! It shows that you understand this important point.

All the best,

Kirk

The LearnEnglish Team

Hi! What’s the difference between A lot of time is wasted on pointless meetings in this company. VS. A lot of time have been wasted on pointless meetings in this company.

Hello Fiona,

The difference is the difference between the present simple ('is') and the present perfect ('has been' -- notice that 'have been' is not correct because 'time' takes a singular verb). The first one is a more general statement that could refer to a long period of time and the second one refers to a more specific time that began sometime in the past and is still happening now.

I'd suggest you read more a bit more about this on our Present simple and Present perfect pages.

All the best,

Kirk

The LearnEnglish Team

Thanks for replying! Your explanation is helpful!

Another similar usage came up to me was that, why that we more often say “things have changed” but not “things are changed”?

Hello, e.g, The work will be finished next week. Could I rewrite the sentence as: e.g, The work will have finished next week. My appreciations.

Hello Via,

Yes, that is grammatically correct and the two sentences effectively mean the same thing. The first one is much more commonly used.

All the best,

Kirk

The LearnEnglish Team

This is the course that I try to capture very well and I enjoy learning passive voice.

Hello, I have a very simple question Can I say Nobody saw the cup And how to change into passive. Can I say " The cup wasn't seen by anybody. " or " The cup was seen by nobody "

Hi abo omar,

Yes! Nobody saw the cup is fine, and both of your passive sentences are fine too.

Best wishes,

Jonathan

The LearnEnglish Team

Hello! Could you add lesson about impersonal passive too?

Hi Kee_Fos,

Thanks for your suggestion! We'll consider that next time we review this page.

In the meantime, you can find some explanation and examples of the impersonal passive here: https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/english-grammar-reference/active-and-passive-voice

Best wishes,

Jonathan

The LearnEnglish Team

Hello! I am not able to get this two sentences: 1) Flights to Sanya, the holiday hotspot in the South China Sea, has seen strong recovery helped by a new duty-free policy. This sentence should be in passive, they haven't mentioned who has seen it. Again it can't be "has been seen" as per passive rules. 2) All the children, gathered in that group, were ready to perform a traditional dance.(non-finite clause) Over here it should be readied.But again it sounds wrong. Kindly help.

Hi Shreya,

These are interesting examples. Let me try to help.

1) The sentence is correct in the active voice. In this sentence, see doesn't mean 'see with your eyes'. It's a different meaning. Here, it means 'to be the time or place when something happens', and the subject is Flights to Sanya (i.e. it means something like 'Flights to Sanya have experienced or witnessed ...'). This is the third meaning of see listed on this page in the Cambridge Dictionary. Have a look there for more examples.

But one correction is needed: Flights to Sanya have seen ...

2) There's no need to use a passive in this sentence. It's fine to use the adjective ready.

As you point out, ready is also a verb so the passive form would be: All the children were readied to perform ... . But, using the passive means specifically that the children were readied by someone (e.g. by a teacher, or a group leader). That is, the children didn't get themselves ready. But there's no other information about that in this sentence, so there's no reason to prefer the passive.

Does that make sense?

Best wishes,

Jonathan

The LearnEnglish Team

Thank you so much Jonathan for your help.

Hello Could you please help me with the following quassi-passive voice change? Active : Cheese is a milk product. Passive : Cheese is a product which is made of milk. Am I correct ?

Hello admins, Please tell me the difference between 'I have no story to be told' and 'I have no story to tell'. Does it depend on how the speaker see the story??

Hi Smiley1,

Interesting examples! Their meanings are very similar. But:

The first one (no story to be told) focuses more on the story, since be told is a passive verb referring to the story ('a story is told').
The second one (no story to tell) focuses more on the speaker, since tell is an active verb and the doer of the verb is the speaker.

Does that make sense?

Best wishes,

Jonathan

The LearnEnglish Team

Hello! I've never quite understood how to use passive with "be going to do smt" form. I've seen both "will be done" and "be going to be done". Which of them is more correct and why? Thanks in advance

Hello alekanka,

Both of those can work -- it really depends on how you see the future. You can see an explanation of this on our Talking about the future page.

All the best,

Kirk

The LearnEnglish Team

I have been got good mark by test although I have some doubt many people who use these sentence passive voice like I am tired, I was gone market yesterday and I will be opened my new shop by tomorrow. These sentence meaning whether passive or active voice can u explain it.

Hello Karan Narang,

Although it looks like a passive sentence, 'I am tired' is simply the pronoun 'I' + the verb 'be' + the adjective 'tired'. Some past participles are routinely used as adjectives, and of course we can use the verb 'be' with them. It can sometimes be tricky to know when a sentence is passive or simply 'be' + an adjective, but especially in informal situations, it's probably not a passive verb.

I'm afraid the other two sentences you mention are not grammatically correct.

All the best,

Kirk

The LearnEnglish Team

Hello ! I found some difficulty with this two sentences please : - The fire service still have not put out. - I don't know who stole my bike. thank you.

Hello Learn,

I suppose you don't understand some words in these sentences? You can find 'to put out' (which means 'to extinguish' and 'steal' ('stole' is the past simple form of 'steal') in the dictionary.

Please note that the first sentence is missing a word -- it should say 'put it out'.

If you have any more questions, we're happy to help -- please just be a little more specific about what you don't understand.

All the best

Kirk

The LearnEnglish Team

Hello! "They are thought that it was wild effort" I heard this sentence by FIFA game speaker. May you explain the meaning with details. (Such as I understood 'others thought about them that the effort was wild') Thank you for all help and support.

Hello redream,

The sentence is not grammatically correct as written.

We're happy to explain language on our pages and sometimes from other published sources such as media or literature. However, we don't generally comment on remarks made in passing by people who we do not know and whose English may be far from perfect.

Peter

The LearnEnglish Team

Choose 1-In my city where I live,new small projects(start-are started) every day. I really want the answer for this choice with explanation.

Choose 1-In my city where I live,new small projects(start-are started) every day. 2- He (was sent- has been sent) to prison for his crimes. Thank you very much.

Hello, this sentence was shown as an example of a passive voice: "The fire service still haven't put out the fire". Where is the verb "to be" in this sentence?. Thank you very much for your help and support!.

Hello CGL

I'm afraid that the verb 'have not put out' is active, not passive. You could make it passive by saying something like 'The fire still hasn't been put out by the fire service.'

All the best

Kirk

The LearnEnglish Team

Can we use present continuous passive for future arrangements? eg my car is being serviced next Monday

Hello Jenny,

Yes, that's perfectly correct. It's quite a common form when we don't know or don't want to say who or what is performing the action.

Peter

The LearnEnglish Team

Hello, Could you please direct me into a page here that explains how we change the passive sentences into active ones? I use lots of passive sentences in my writing which I've been told weakens my essays. Thank you for your help.

Hello H_L,

We don't have a page focusing on transformation from one voice to the other, but we do have pages on active and passive voice with plenty of pairs of examples and explanations of the rules:

https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/english-grammar-reference/active-and-passive-voice

Peter

The LearnEnglish Team

thank you

It's really awesome.

Hi, i got a question here. Someone (saw) my talk at the conference and recommended me as a speaker. and Someone (had found) my wallet and left it at reception. why the first sentence used the (saw) can not use by (was seen) or (had seen) but the second sentence used (had found) not using (was found) or (found)?

Hello Pandalapd

The subject of the verb 'saw' is 'someone' and the object is 'my talk', so a passive verb such as 'was seen' is not correct there, because a passive verb only has a subject and not an object. 'had seen' is also a possible correct answer there, but is not an option for that question.

For the second sentence, 'was found' is not correct for the same reason that 'was seen' wasn't correct for the first sentence: an active verb is needed, not a passive one. 'found' is also correct, but is not an option for that question.

All the best

Kirk

The LearnEnglish Team

hello, thanks for these valuable lessons. I have a small question here. which of these sentences are right? "The fire service still hasn't put out the fire." "The fire service still haven't put out the fire."

Hello ahmed hefny,

Organisations like the fire service can be treated as both singular (an organisation or an institution) or plural (a team of people). Thus, both has and have are possible.

Other organisations like this include sports teams, governments, international organisations, the police, the army and others.

Peter

The LearnEnglish Team