Passives
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
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
Hello jassa,
You can see the various forms of the infinitive in the section headed 'Marking for tense, aspect and voice' on this page:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infinitive
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Ok dear sir... But asked about infinitives without to.
Please give some examples of infinitives without to in all aspects with theirs active and passive voices please?
It will be more helpful for me.
Hello again jassa,
Whether or not 'to' is needed depends on what comes before the infinitive. If the verb 'want' comes before it then 'to' is needed. If a verb like 'should' comes before it then 'to' is not used. That is why 'to' is in brackets (to) on the page I linked to.
On this site we try to answer questions direclty but we do not provide long lists of examples. We are a small team and it's just not possible to provide such long answers.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello!
What about the passive of a sentence like the following?
The committee will have decided to close the restaurant by the end of next week.
Is it
The restaurant will have been decided to close by the end of next week
or
The committee will have decided the restaurant to be closed by the end o next week
or
To close the restaurant will have been decided by the committee by the end of next week?
What is the rule for such cases?
Thanks in advance!
Hello raniaaaadaz,
You can only make a passive sentence with a transitive verb which has a direct object. Here, the verb 'decide' does not have an object but is instead part of a pattern with the infinitive 'to close'.
You could use a construction such as 'It has been decided (by the committee) to close...', which has a similar sense to a traditional passive form.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
That was very helpful. Thank you!
It is easy to find the answer from the options (a,b,c) you gave, that is, the answers are not close to each other.
Good morning Sir,
I have a doubt about the meaning of two sentences:
The meaning is almost the same even if there’s a slight difference, is it correct?
Also, I don’t understand if I can say:
Are both the phrases corrected? Or I have to use is being finished and was being finished?
Hello Libra23,
'finish' is what is sometimes called an ergative verb. This means it can be used both transitively and intransitively (look for the 'Verb patterns' section on this second page).
In sentence 1 'will finish' is intransitive, and in sentence 2 it is transitive (and in the passive voice). In most contexts, they effectively mean the same thing, though 2 includes the idea of people or machines doing the work more than 1 does.
Does that help you make sense of it?
Best wishes,
Kirk
LearnEnglish team
Thanks a lot Kirk