LearnEnglish Hub
In our new Learning hub, you can put your language into practice. Take part in the activities and practise your English skills by writing comments, recording yourself speaking and sharing photos with descriptions.
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
Language level
Do you need to improve your English grammar?
Join thousands of learners from around the world who are improving their English grammar with our online courses.
Hello Bharati,
I would say that it is a passive structure. The presence of the by-phrase indicates that it is a passive construction.
THere is a good discussion of the difference between passives and participal adjectives, and when there is ambiguity, on the relevant wikipedia page. The section on stative and adjectival uses has a number of examples:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_passive_voice
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Bharati
You could certainly call 'cancelled' an adjective here, but the point Peter was making is that it's inherently ambiguous. The exact meaning that is intended would be clear in a specific context.
I'm afraid there is no easy way to differentiate between a passive and 'be' + adjective without knowing the speaker's intention. Usually either the context makes the speaker's intentions clear or there is no significant difference in meaning (or both).
All the best
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team