The Present Perfect passive

Use has with a singular or uncountable subject: The invoice has been paid. With plurals and I/you/we/they, use have: The invoices have been paid. Agreement is determined by the new passive subject, not the agent in the by-phrase.

Been is a required, unchanging link. After been, use the past participle: completed, sent, written, taken, built. In regular verbs, V2 and V3 are often identical, but irregular forms must be learnt separately: wrote → written, took → taken, made → made.

The contraction ’s can mean has only where it is followed by a past participle or another part of a perfect construction: It’s been approved = It has been approved. For clarity while learning, first become confident building the full chain.

In a negative, not comes after have/has: The forms have not been checked. The contractions haven’t and hasn’t are natural in neutral speech. The negation concerns completion of the action by now, not the existence of the thing itself.

In a yes/no question, have/has moves before the subject: Has the form been checked? Have the forms been checked? Been and V3 stay after the subject.

A short answer repeats have/has, not been: Yes, it has. No, they haven’t. In a standard affirmative short answer, do not contract Yes, it has to Yes, it’s.

Just means “a very short time ago” and usually comes after have/has and before been: The result has just been announced. Already means “by now” or “before expected” and often occupies the same mid position: The result has already been announced; final position is also possible in conversation.

Yet, referring to an expected action, typically comes at the end of a negative or question: The result hasn’t been announced yet. Has the result been announced yet? In a neutral affirmative about an action already completed, already is more natural than yet.

The Present Perfect is possible for completed actions within a period the speaker sees as still open: Three requests have been processed so far today. This does not mean every occurrence of today automatically requires the Present Perfect: the choice depends on whether we are summarising the situation up to now or recounting a completed event at a specific past moment.

To turn an active Present Perfect sentence into a passive one, move the active object into subject position, retain have/has as the Present Perfect, add been and put the main verb in V3. Make have/has agree with the new subject: The editor has approved the articles → The articles have been approved.

Time, negation, quantity, adverbs and other facts must remain unchanged. Changing voice does not permit changing today to yesterday, removing not or replacing two applications with one.

Add by + agent when the agent is truly important, unexpected or needed for contrast: The plan has been approved by the safety officer. If the agent is obvious, unknown or unimportant, a shorter passive without the agent is more natural.

The Present Simple passive describes a rule, routine or general fact: Reports are checked every Friday. The Present Perfect passive summarises what has already happened by now: The reports have been checked, so we can send them.

The Past Simple passive places a completed event in a closed past time: The report was checked at 9:00 yesterday. In the standard learning context, do not combine the Present Perfect with finished-time expressions such as yesterday or at 9:00 last Monday.

The Present Continuous passive shows an action in progress now: The report is being checked now. The Present Perfect passive shows a result achieved by the present moment: The report has been checked. Both sentences can concern today, but they answer different questions.

In the active Present Perfect, the subject performs the action: The manager has signed the contract. In the passive, the subject receives it: The contract has been signed. Has + V3 alone does not make a sentence passive; a passive requires a form of be, here been.

The sequence has/have been can also be the Present Perfect of be before an adjective: The door has been open all morning. Open describes a state here; it is not a passive saying that someone opened the door. In contrast, The door has been opened contains the V3 form opened and reports an action.

Do not confuse this with the active Present Perfect Continuous: The engineers have been testing the alarm. Here, testing is an -ing form, and the engineers perform the action. The passive result is The alarm has been tested. The rare, long perfect continuous passive, such as has been being tested, is not the target of this B1 material.

First identify the communicative focus: who performed the action, or what is already ready, changed, not done or checked. The passive is appropriate only for a verb with an object, or another construction whose element can naturally become a subject; arrive and happen have no ordinary passive.

Then check the time perspective. If you are summarising a result up to now, the Present Perfect may be appropriate. If you name a specific finished moment, choose the Past Simple; for a routine, the Present Simple; for an action currently in progress, the Present Continuous.

Finally, follow the chain: new subject → have/has → optional not or just/already → been → V3 → yet or required adverbials → by-agent only when needed for the meaning. This is more reliable than looking for a single “signal word”.