Every English sentence with a transitive verb can be said in two ways: with the doer up front (active voice) or with the thing that’s acted upon up front (passive voice). Choosing correctly between them is one of the quietest but most important skills in English writing — it shifts emphasis, controls formality, and can make or break the clarity of a sentence.
The mechanics are simple. The judgment call about when to use which is where intermediate learners pull ahead.
The Basic Formula
The passive voice always uses a form of be + past participle of the main verb. The tense of be matches the tense of the original active sentence.
- Active: Subject + Verb + Direct Object → “The chef cooked the meal.”
- Passive: Direct Object + be + past participle (+ optional by agent) → “The meal was cooked (by the chef).”
Only transitive verbs — the ones that take a direct object — can form the passive. Intransitive verbs like arrive or sleep have nothing to “promote” to subject position, so there’s no passive version.
Passive Across All 12 Tenses
The passive is built on be, so you can form it in any tense that be can appear in. Here’s the full pattern with the verb build → past participle built:
- Present Simple: “Houses are built quickly here.”
- Present Continuous: “A new stadium is being built.”
- Present Perfect: “The bridge has been built.”
- Past Simple: “The wall was built in 1200.”
- Past Continuous: “The engine was being repaired when I called.”
- Past Perfect: “The report had been completed before the meeting.”
- Future Simple: “The offices will be finished next month.”
- Future Perfect: “By 2030, the line will have been extended.”
- Modal + passive: “The door must be closed.” / “The issue can be solved.” / “This should be done carefully.”
Perfect-continuous passive forms (“has been being built“) exist but are extremely rare and almost always rewritten in active voice — don’t worry about them.
When to Use the Passive
The passive isn’t always bad (despite what Strunk & White might have you believe). It’s the right choice in several specific cases:
- The doer is unknown or unimportant: “My bike was stolen.” (Who cares who the thief is — the point is the bike’s gone.)
- Scientific / academic register: “The samples were heated to 200°C.” (The researcher is irrelevant; the method is the point.)
- To emphasize the receiver of the action: “The Mona Lisa was painted by Leonardo.” (We’re talking about the painting, not the painter.)
- News and formal reports: “Three suspects have been arrested.” (The police action is assumed; the suspects are the focus.)
- Impersonal instructions: “The form must be signed in blue ink.” (Avoids pointing at a specific person.)
- Politeness / face-saving: “Mistakes were made.” (Classic deflection — avoids naming who messed up.)
When to Avoid the Passive
Overusing the passive makes writing vague and sluggish. Prefer active voice when:
- The doer matters: “The committee rejected the proposal” is clearer than “The proposal was rejected.”
- You want energy and directness: journalism, marketing, and conversational writing default to active because it sounds immediate.
- Clarity is more important than neutrality: “Someone broke the window” beats “The window was broken” when the detective needs to know who.
- The passive creates dangling structure: “Having completed the form, it was submitted” — awkward. “After completing the form, she submitted it” is cleaner.
Rule of thumb: use passive when the what matters more than the who. Otherwise, prefer active.
The “By” Agent — Include or Omit?
The passive allows you to name the doer using by, but it’s usually optional:
- Include by: when the doer is surprising, specific, or important. “The theory was proposed by Einstein.” / “The app was designed by a 16-year-old.”
- Omit by: when the doer is obvious, generic, or irrelevant. “Suspects were arrested.” (obviously by police) / “The package was delivered.” (by the courier — who cares which one)
Roughly 85% of real-world passive sentences omit the agent. If you find yourself always writing “by someone,” consider whether active voice would be simpler.
Get-Passive — The Casual Variant
English has a second passive form using get + past participle. It’s informal and carries a slightly different feel — usually emphasizing an unexpected or undesirable event happening TO the subject.
- “He got fired last week.” (sudden, bad news)
- “My phone got stolen on the train.”
- “She got hired on the spot.” (exciting, unexpected)
- “The window got broken during the party.”
Be-passive vs get-passive: “He was fired” is neutral/formal; “He got fired” is casual and often emotionally charged. In academic or business writing, stick with be. In speech and casual writing, get is common.
Double-Object Verbs and the Passive
Ditransitive verbs (give, send, tell, show, teach, offer) take two objects — you can promote either one to passive subject:
- “The manager gave her a raise.” →
- Option A: “She was given a raise.” (indirect object → subject)
- Option B: “A raise was given to her.” (direct object → subject; less natural)
- “They taught us calculus.” →
- “We were taught calculus.” ✓ (more natural)
- “Calculus was taught to us.” (also fine, more formal)
English speakers usually prefer to promote the person (indirect object) rather than the thing — it feels more natural.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
Passive voice is where small errors multiply fast. Watch for these:
- Using past simple instead of past participle: ✗ The book was wrote → ✓ The book was written. After be, always past participle.
- Making intransitive verbs passive: ✗ The sun was risen / The accident was happened → ✓ The sun rose / The accident happened. No direct object = no passive.
- Forgetting to change be to match tense: ✗ The cake is eaten yesterday → ✓ The cake was eaten yesterday.
- Double passive (“was being been”): ✗ The report was being been written → ✓ The report was being written. One been is enough.
- Overusing passive to sound “smart”: ✗ It was decided by the committee that a new policy would be implemented → ✓ The committee decided to implement a new policy. Active is almost always clearer.
- Confusing passive with past continuous: “The ball was hit” (passive) vs “She was hitting the ball” (active past continuous). Past participle vs -ing form — different constructions.
Why Mastering This Pays Off
Passive voice is one of the clearest dividers between intermediate and advanced English users. Beginners avoid it entirely; intermediates overuse it in a (misguided) attempt to sound formal; advanced users deploy it precisely — active by default, passive for specific rhetorical reasons.
To build on this, review related topics: transitive vs intransitive verbs (only transitives form passive), auxiliary verbs (be is the backbone of every passive sentence), and irregular verbs (where the past participle is the tricky form you need). Browse every verb with full conjugation charts including the past participle column.