Passive: Perfect and Future

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”.

The Past Perfect usually needs a clear past reference point. It may appear in the same sentence (before the meeting began, by the time the guests arrived, when the fault was discovered), in the previous sentence, or in an already established story.

The grammatical order of the sentence parts does not determine the chronology. The room had been prepared before the guests arrived and Before the guests arrived, the room had been prepared express the same order: first the preparation, then the arrival.

The Past Perfect is appropriate when the earlier action explains, affects, or provides the background for the later one. For an ordinary sequence of events in chronological order, the Past Simple is often enough: The courier arrived, collected the parcel and left.

Had does not change according to person or number: the letter had been sent; the letters had been sent; I had been invited. Unlike the Present Perfect, you do not have to choose between have and has here.

Been is the required passive link, and it must be followed by a past participle. For regular verbs, this is often the -ed form; irregular verbs must be learned separately: eat → eaten, write → written, take → taken, build → built, steal → stolen.

In the contraction, 'd before been + V3 means had: The keys'd been found before noon. In formal writing, the full form is clearer; in a would construction, 'd is usually followed by the base form: They'd be sent later.

In a negative sentence, not comes after had: The alarm had not been tested. The contraction hadn't is natural: The alarm hadn't been tested. The negative means that the action had not been completed by the past point.

In a yes/no question, had moves before the subject: Had the alarm been tested before the doors opened? The short answer repeats had, not been: Yes, it had. No, it hadn't.

Already, just, never, and often usually come between had and been: had already been signed, had just been repaired, had never been used. Still most often comes before hadn't, while yet can come after the negative chain or near its end: It still hadn't been delivered; It hadn't been delivered yet.

To change an active Past Perfect sentence into the passive, move the object into the subject position, keep had, add been, and use V3: The editor had approved the article → The article had been approved by the editor.

Keep all the facts: negation, number, time expressions, and the relationship between the events. Changing the voice does not allow you to change before to after, one file to two files, or remove not.

By + agent is needed when the person or thing performing the action is important, unexpected, or directly asked about. An unknown someone, an obvious service, or people in general is usually omitted. An instrument is introduced with with: The seal had been broken with a knife.

The Past Simple passive describes a completed event in the past: The bridge was inspected on Monday. The Past Perfect passive places it earlier than another past point: By Tuesday, the bridge had been inspected.

The Present Perfect passive connects an earlier action with the present: The bridge has been inspected, so we can open it now. The Past Perfect passive connects it with a later situation in the past: The bridge had been inspected, so they opened it that afternoon.

Before and after often already make the order clear, so the Past Simple can sometimes sound natural in both clauses. The Past Perfect is not automatically required after every before; it is especially useful when the speaker goes back to background information or emphasizes a completed result by a past boundary.

Had been + -ing is the active Past Perfect Continuous: The engineers had been testing the alarm. The subject engineers performs the action. A completed passive result uses V3: The alarm had been tested. The longer form had been being tested is grammatically possible but rare and is not the focus of this B1 material.

After been, the word may be an adjective rather than a passive participle. The door had been open for an hour describes a state; The door had been opened before noon reports an action. The context and the form of the word matter more than the simple presence of had been.

This passive is usually formed from a transitive verb with an object; established prepositional constructions are also possible: The child had been looked after. Arrive, happen, and occur do not normally have passive forms. Separately, before + Past Perfect can show that something was not completed by the later event: The guests left before the meal had been served — the meal had not yet been served when they left.

First, draw two points: what happened earlier and which later past event or boundary makes this result relevant. If there is no second point, check whether the Past Perfect is really needed rather than the Past Simple.

Then choose the focus. If the agent is important, the active voice may be more natural; if the object, consequence, or an unknown agent is important, make the receiver of the action the subject and build had been + V3.

Finally, check the form and meaning: had is the same for all subjects; not or already is in the correct position; been has not been omitted; V3 is the correct form; before/after has not been reversed; the by-agent has been added only if needed.

Every sentence in this pattern contains three parts: will, be and the past participle (V3). Will does not change with the person: I/she/they will. Be always remains the infinitive and is unchanged too. For irregular verbs, learn the specific past participle.

In this pattern, will needs the base form be: will be published, not will been published. Been follows have, has or had; the longer future perfect will have been published is also correct, but it is a different construction.

Will be + V3 can convey an uncertain prediction, possibly about something not yet confirmed; an official plan or schedule, with an agreed date or procedure; or a personal promise or assurance addressed to a particular person.

Context helps distinguish these meanings: probably or I think can make a prediction more cautious; an approved date or official source suggests a plan; I promise explicitly signals a promise. Addressing you does not by itself make a promise: You will be delayed can be a simple prediction.

Form the negative by inserting not immediately after will and before be, or by using the contraction won't: will not be + V3 or won't be + V3. Be and the past participle do not change.

The position of the negative matters for the meaning: it negates the action itself, as in won't be cancelled, rather than another part of the sentence.

In a yes/no question, put will before the subject: Will the road be repaired? To ask about the time, add When: When will the road be repaired? If the question word itself is the subject, do not add another subject: Who will be invited?

In a positive short answer, will is NOT contracted: Yes, it will. (not Yes, it'll.). In a negative short answer, both forms are possible: No, it won't. and No, it will not.

When the agent is unknown or unimportant, it can be omitted: The winners will be announced. If the agent matters, add by + agent. This phrase does not have to come immediately after V3: The winners will be announced tomorrow by the director.

Omitting the agent is a choice that reflects the speaker's focus on the result rather than on the person acting. It is not a universal ban on adding by when the identity of the agent is relevant.

Will be + V3, for a prediction or plan, and must/should/can be + V3, for obligation, advice or possibility, share the structure modal + be + V3 but differ in meaning: The door will be locked at 9pm predicts what will happen, whereas The door must be locked at 9pm states a requirement.

The Present Simple passive often describes a regular procedure: The bins are collected every Monday. Will be + V3 can describe one future occurrence or a future routine: From next month, the bins will be collected every Tuesday. The choice depends on the time perspective, not just on the number of repetitions.

This rule does NOT cover the perfect passive, has/have been or had been + V3: sequence and connections to the present or another past event belong to neighbouring rules in this topic. It also does not cover going to be + V3 or continuous forms such as will be being done. Before producing your own answer, check that all three parts, will, be and V3, are present, that not comes immediately after will, and that questions have the correct word order.