Voice tells us whether the subject of a sentence does the action or receives it. In the active voice, the subject acts. In the passive voice, the subject is acted upon.
- Active: The teacher marked the essays.
- Passive: The essays were marked (by the teacher).
How to Form the Passive
The passive uses a form of be + past participle. The object of the active sentence becomes the subject of the passive sentence. Only verbs that take an object (transitive verbs) can be made passive, so you cannot make “She arrived” passive.
| Tense | Active | Passive |
|---|---|---|
| Present simple | They clean the room. | The room is cleaned. |
| Present continuous | They are cleaning the room. | The room is being cleaned. |
| Present perfect | They have cleaned the room. | The room has been cleaned. |
| Past simple | They cleaned the room. | The room was cleaned. |
| Past continuous | They were cleaning the room. | The room was being cleaned. |
| Past perfect | They had cleaned the room. | The room had been cleaned. |
| Future (will) | They will clean the room. | The room will be cleaned. |
| Modal | They must clean the room. | The room must be cleaned. |
When to Use the Active Voice
Use the active voice for most writing. It is usually shorter, clearer and more direct, because the reader immediately knows who did what.
When the Passive Is the Better Choice
- The doer is unknown: My bike was stolen.
- The doer is obvious or unimportant: The suspect was arrested.
- You want to focus on the result: Penicillin was discovered in 1928.
- Scientific and formal writing: The samples were heated to 100°C.
Common Mistakes
- Using the wrong participle: The letter was wrote → The letter was written.
- Forgetting be: The house built in 1990 → The house was built in 1990.
- Overusing the passive, which makes writing vague and wordy.
Practice
Change these to the passive:
- Someone has opened the window.
- The company will announce the results tomorrow.
- They are building a new bridge.
Answers: 1. The window has been opened. 2. The results will be announced tomorrow. 3. A new bridge is being built.
See also: English tenses and common grammar mistakes.
