Passive Voice

Build sentences whose subject receives rather than performs the action: am/is/are plus a past participle. Practise subject–be agreement, regular and irregular participles, negatives without do/does, questions beginning with be and a deliberate choice about naming the agent after by.

Published October 3, 2026

The present simple passive: am/is/are + past participle

1. The subject receives the action

Compare People clean the room with The room is cleaned. In the second sentence, the room receiving the action has become subject. The agent need not be named.

This is useful when the agent is unknown, unimportant or obvious. The sentence then begins with the thing central to the discussion rather than a person no one intends to discuss.

English is spoken in many countries.

Subject English is the language spoken. The sentence omits individual speakers because it concerns millions of people.

Exam papers are marked in another building.

The procedure matters to the student rather than the marker’s name.

The old library is protected by the city council.

The agent follows by because the city council’s responsibility for the building is new information.

2. Form: am/is/are + past participle

The core form combines am/is/are with a past participle. Be agrees with the subject; the participle takes no -s for he/she/it.

Regular participles match the past form: clean → cleaned, wash → washed, check → checked. Learn irregular ones separately: speak → spoken, make → made, write → written, sell → sold, keep → kept, pay → paid.

How to build it

subject + am / is / are + past participle (+ by + agent).

subject / S: The grammatical subject: who or what the clause is about; the verb agrees with it. In The book was written, the book is the subject, although someone else does the action.
V3 / past participle: The third verb form: worked, gone, seen. Used after have/has or in the passive, for example; it is not always the same as V2.

The hospital is cleaned twice a night.

Is agrees with singular the hospital; cleaned is the regular participle of clean.

Bank cards are made from thin plastic.

Are agrees with plural bank cards; made is the irregular participle of make.

I am invited to every school concert.

Subject I takes am; invited remains unchanged.

3. Is or are: the subject chooses be

I takes am; he/she/it or an ordinary singular noun takes is; you/we/they and plural nouns take are. You takes are even for one person. Agreement is with the passive subject rather than the agent after by.

Uncountable water, rice, money, information and coffee take singular is in their uncountable senses, even for a large amount.

The street is closed every Sunday.

The street is singular, requiring is.

The streets are closed every Sunday.

The subject becomes plural, changing be to are while participle closed stays the same.

Sugar is added at the very end.

Uncountable sugar takes singular is added.

4. Negatives: is not / are not + participle

Be + not forms the negative: am not, is not, are not. Contractions include isn’t/aren’t and I’m not. Don’t/doesn’t is not needed to form this negative.

Contractions are more natural in conversation; written rules and notices more often use full forms. Both are correct.

These rooms are not heated in summer.

Not directly follows are; heated remains a participle.

The side entrance isn't used in winter.

Isn’t contracts is not; subject the side entrance is singular.

Photos aren't allowed inside the concert hall.

A typical prohibition: aren’t + participle allowed.

5. Questions: be moves first

In a yes/no question, be precedes the subject and the participle stays directly after it. Add no do or does.

Questions with how often, where, when or why place that phrase before the same order: question word + be + subject + participle.

Is this hall used for concerts?

Is precedes subject this hall, followed by participle used.

Are the doors locked at night?

Plural the doors requires are rather than is.

When are the results published?

After the question word, the order matches a yes/no question.

6. By + agent: when is it useful?

A key benefit of this construction is leaving the agent unnamed. Add by when that information contributes something: an unexpected agent, an author or a specific responsible party.

A general or obvious agent is often omitted. But by our staff can help emphasise that the staff, rather than another service, performs the work.

The winner is chosen by the readers, not by the editors.

The two by-phrases identify the agent contrast that is the sentence’s point.

The classrooms are cleaned in the evening.

The cleaner’s identity is obvious or unimportant, so no by-phrase appears.

Our menu is written by the chef himself.

The menu’s author matters to the guest, so the agent is named.

7. Uses and limits of the topic

The present simple passive describes routine or general actions: processes, institutional rules, notices, products or services. That is why it commonly appears on doors, menus and instructions.

Past events use was/were + V3; ongoing processes use is/are being + V3: The room is being cleaned. Not every am/is/are + V3 describes an action: The door is closed can describe its current state. Here we practise routine and general passive actions.

Sandwiches are prepared in front of the customer.

A general procedure rather than one particular event.

The floor is washed after every class.

A routine: is + participle.

The hall was decorated for yesterday's concert.

Was decorated describes one past event. The sentence is correct, but uses another form belonging to another rule.

Common mistakes

Incorrect:English is speak in many countries.

Correct:English is spoken in many countries.

Is requires participle spoken, not base-form speak; be alone does not form a passive.

Incorrect:The shelves is filled every morning.

Correct:The shelves are filled every morning.

The subject chooses be: plural the shelves requires are.

Incorrect:The report doesn't printed here.

Correct:The report isn't printed here.

Be forms the negative, so doesn’t is unnecessary here; use isn’t and participle printed.

Incorrect:Does the hall cleaned every Friday?

Correct:Is the hall cleaned every Friday?

A question puts be first rather than do/does; the participle stays after the subject.

Incorrect:The letters are send on Mondays.

Correct:The letters are sent on Mondays.

Send is the irregular base form; are requires participle sent.

Incorrect:The parcels are weigh at the post office.

Correct:The parcels are weighed at the post office.

The passive after are requires weighed. Weigh is a base form; this regular verb forms its participle with -ed.

Incorrect:The bins are emptied by on Monday mornings.

Correct:The bins are emptied on Monday mornings.

By introduces an agent; it is unnecessary before this time expression.

Sources

The Past Simple passive: was/were + past participle

When the event matters more than the agent

Use the past passive to describe a completed past event when the focus is not the person who acted but the person or thing affected by the action. The person or thing that received the action becomes the subject and starts the sentence.

The agent may be unknown, unimportant or clear from the situation. This is not simply “a more complicated way to say the same thing”: the passive gives the sentence a different starting point and directs the reader’s attention differently. It lets you report that something was checked, removed or found without naming who did it.

My bag was checked at the airport.

Who checked the bag is clear from the situation, so the worker is not named; what happened to the bag matters.

The old signs were removed last week.

The plural subject changes the form of be; there is no agent because the message does not need one.

Form: past be plus the past participle

The main parts of the Past Simple passive are was/were and V3. Use was with I/he/she/it and a singular noun; use were with you/we/they and plurals. You takes were even when it refers to one person. The past participle does not change for number.

Take the number from the subject, not from whoever performed the action. In Both machines were tested by one engineer, be agrees with machines even though there is only one engineer.

How to build it

subject + was/were + past participle (+ by + agent)

subject / S: The grammatical subject: who or what the clause is about; the verb agrees with it. In The book was written, the book is the subject, although someone else does the action.
V3 / past participle: The third verb form: worked, gone, seen. Used after have/has or in the passive, for example; it is not always the same as V2.

The parcel was left at the door.

One thing as the subject takes singular be; the past participle left stays unchanged.

My cousins were invited to the wedding.

Several people as the subject take plural be, while the past participle invited is the same as with a singular subject.

The past participle: regular and irregular verbs

For regular verbs, the past participle is the same as the past tense and ends in -ed: book — booked — booked. In these sentences, the main thing to check is therefore the form of be.

Irregular verbs vary. Sometimes the past participle differs from the past tense (write — wrote — written, break — broke — broken, steal — stole — stolen), and it is the participle that must follow be. Sometimes they are the same (sell — sold — sold, find — found — found), making errors easy to overlook.

Check specifically for V3: was written, not was write or was wrote. If V1/V2/V3 are identical, as in put, the whole construction determines the meaning, not the appearance of an individual word.

The room was booked for Friday.

A regular verb: the past participle is formed with -ed and is the same as the past tense.

The letter was written by hand.

An irregular verb whose past participle written differs from its past tense wrote.

My phone was stolen at the station.

The past participle stolen also differs from the past tense stole.

Who did it: the by-phrase and when to leave it out

You can name the agent with by. This phrase often follows the verb, but need not come at the very end: The room was cleaned by the staff yesterday. It can be omitted if the agent is unimportant or obvious.

The by-phrase is needed when the agent is itself new information or when a contrast matters: these particular people, not just anyone. If the agent is unknown, unimportant or obvious, there is no need to name it or add somebody or people.

Be careful with other phrases at the end of the sentence. In three hours, twice, in 2004 and near the lake answer “how long?”, “how often?”, “when?” and “where?”; they do not name the agent.

The award was given to a local doctor.

Who presented the award does not matter for the news, so there is no by-phrase.

Our door was opened by the wind.

The agent need not be human: by can introduce any force that caused the action.

Negatives and questions

The form of be itself makes the negative: add not after it, either in full or in a contraction. The auxiliary did does not appear in this construction because be already acts as the auxiliary.

In a question, be moves before the subject, while the past participle stays after it. In a wh-question, the question word comes before be: first when, where or why, then be, then the subject, then the past participle.

The report wasn't finished on time.

Not attaches to be; a version with didn’t is not possible here.

Was your car damaged in the accident?

Be comes before the subject, and the past participle damaged comes after it.

When was this school opened?

The question word comes first, followed by the same order as in a yes/no question.

Where this form sounds most natural

The past passive is often useful in news reports, announcements, museum labels and accounts of objects. The choice depends on the focus; active sentences and named agents can also be needed in these texts.

It is also useful in sensitive conversations. You can talk about spoiled coffee or a late order without blaming a specific person: the thing itself becomes the subject, rather than the worker.

Two roads were closed after the storm.

A typical announcement: the fact and its consequences for drivers matter, not the name of the service responsible.

A new hospital was opened in our town in 2015.

An account of a town: the year locates a completed event, and the agent is not named.

Scope: what does not belong to this topic

Not every sentence with past be is passive. In was building and were playing, be is followed by an -ing form: this is an ongoing action performed by the subject, not an action received by it.

For an ordinary passive, the verb must allow an object that can become the subject. In their usual meanings, happen and arrive have no such object: The accident happened; The bus arrived. With go/come, the construction can vary with the meaning and preposition, so assess the full phrase.

Is cleaned / are checked are present forms, covered separately. To say where or when someone was born, remember the usual construction was/were born; it is not the only possible way to discuss birth in general.

They were building the road all summer.

Be is followed by an -ing form, so this is the workers’ ongoing action, not a passive.

The accident happened near the bridge.

The verb describes an event occurring rather than an action directed at an object, so it has no passive form in this use.

The office is cleaned every evening.

Be is in the present here: this describes a routine, not one completed event.

My sister was born in Lviv.

A fixed construction: use be together with born to state someone’s birth.

Common mistakes

Incorrect:The plates was put on the top shelf.

Correct:The plates were put on the top shelf.

The subject is plural, so be must agree; the past participle remains unchanged.

Incorrect:The report was write in one night.

Correct:The report was written in one night.

After be, use the past participle, not the base form.

Incorrect:The cake was made by she.

Correct:The cake was made by her.

After by, use an object pronoun: her, him, us, them.

Incorrect:The floor was wash on Monday.

Correct:The floor was washed on Monday.

The verb is regular, so its past participle is formed with -ed; the base form alone cannot follow be.

Incorrect:The bus was arrived late.

Correct:The bus arrived late.

This verb describes an action that nobody directs at the subject, so it has no passive form in this use.

Incorrect:My wallet was steal on the bus.

Correct:My wallet was stolen on the bus.

The past participle of this irregular verb differs from both its base form and its past tense.

Incorrect:The garden was cleaning by volunteers.

Correct:The garden was cleaned by volunteers.

The -ing form would describe an ongoing action performed by the garden itself; the passive requires the past participle.

Incorrect:Where was printed this book?

Correct:Where was this book printed?

In a question, be is followed first by the subject and only then by the past participle.

Sources

Active and passive voice: who acts and who receives the action

Who acts, and who receives the action?

In typical action examples, compare the agent with what the action affects: A neighbour feeds our cat → Our cat is fed by a neighbour. In the active, the neighbour is the subject; in the passive, the cat is. Do not identify voice solely by how active the subject seems: an active sentence can also describe a state, as in He knows the answer.

To describe an action without naming who performs it, English can make the recipient the subject and add be + past participle: Our cat is fed. The cat receives the action, while the person feeding it need not be identified.

Not every sentence can be made passive: if the action has no object, there is no recipient available for this transformation.

A neighbour feeds our cat every summer.

The subject a neighbour performs the action, so the sentence is active.

Our cat is fed every summer.

Now the subject our cat receives the action, and the person feeding it is not named.

The train left at six.

The action has no object, so this sentence has no passive counterpart.

Turning an active sentence into a passive one

The transformation has three steps. The object of the active sentence becomes the subject of the passive. The verb becomes be + past participle, with be carrying the tense of the active verb. The agent is either omitted or retained after by.

The rest of the meaning stays the same: the place, time, and number of participants remain unchanged. The transformation changes the perspective of the message, not the facts.

How to build it

object + be + past participle (+ by + doer)

V3 / past participle: The third verb form: worked, gone, seen. Used after have/has or in the passive, for example; it is not always the same as V2.
object / O: Who or what an action affects: in I read a book, a book is the object.

The police found the car.

The active version: the agent is named as the subject.

The car was found.

The object the car becomes the subject, and the agent is omitted.

The car was found by the police.

The same passive, with the agent retained after by.

Be marks tense and agrees with the new subject

In these passive patterns, only be changes. The past participle of the main verb remains the same across the forms.

In the present, I takes am; he/she/it or a singular noun takes is; and you/we/they or a plural noun takes are. In the past, I/he/she/it takes was and you/we/they takes were. You takes are/were even when referring to one person.

How to build it

am/is/are + V3 (present); was/were + V3 (past)

V3 / past participle: The third verb form: worked, gone, seen. Used after have/has or in the passive, for example; it is not always the same as V2.

This room is booked every Friday.

One room and a regular present action call for is.

These rooms are booked every Friday.

There are several rooms, so be becomes are, while booked stays the same.

The hall was booked for one evening.

One hall and a completed past event call for was.

When the agent is not named

A passive without by is an ordinary form, not a shortened substitute. The agent is omitted in three typical cases: it is unknown, obvious from the situation, or simply unimportant to the message.

This is why the passive is common in announcements, news, and reports of problems: the listener needs a fact about something rather than the name of the person involved.

My wallet was found in the street.

The agent is not named. It may be unknown, understood, or simply unimportant; the sentence itself does not explain the reason for omission.

The rubbish is collected on Tuesdays.

The agent is obvious, so there is no need to name the collection service.

The results were sent to every student.

The agent is unimportant: the students care about the fact that the results were sent.

When by + agent is needed

Keep the by-phrase when the agent is the news. The passive then lets you begin with the topic of discussion while still naming who performed the action.

Be careful with by: the preposition has other meanings too. In a sentence about transport or a deadline, by does not name an agent, so the word alone does not make a sentence passive.

This wall was decorated by local children.

The wall remains the topic, but the people who decorated it are the main news, so they are named after by.

The music was chosen by the students themselves.

Removing the by-phrase would lose the most important part of the message.

He goes to work by bus.

Here by indicates the means of transport, not an agent; the sentence is active, with he as the person travelling.

Which object can become the subject?

In an ordinary transformation, the active object becomes the passive subject: They ate the sandwiches → The sandwiches were eaten. The intransitive The accident happened has no such object.

Sometimes the object belongs to a verb with a preposition: They laughed at him → He was laughed at. Do not therefore rule out words such as laugh or sleep in every passive construction; check the whole pattern. This lesson focuses on simple transitive verbs.

The children ate all the sandwiches.

There is an object, all the sandwiches, so a passive is possible.

All the sandwiches were eaten.

The object becomes the subject, and the children are not named.

The accident happened at nine.

Happen has no object, so there is no passive counterpart.

Choosing a voice for your own message

Voice lets you choose the topic. Begin with what the message is really about: the person if the person matters, or the thing or event if that is what matters.

Active and passive can alternate in a connected text. Choose according to the topic and the emphasis you need. Several passive sentences in a row can also be appropriate, for example when describing a process; their number alone is not enough to call a text artificial.

My teacher wrote this note.

The active structure makes the teacher the subject. Whether the writer or the note is new information depends on the preceding conversation.

This note was written on Monday.

The passive begins with the note and states the day it was written; the writer is not identified.

Nothing was decided at the meeting.

The passive reports the outcome without naming the participants.

Common mistakes

Incorrect:Thousands of tourists are visited this castle.

Correct:Thousands of tourists visit this castle.

The tourists perform the action, so active voice is needed. Be + past participle would make them the people being visited.

Incorrect:My suitcase were left at the airport.

Correct:My suitcase was left at the airport.

Be agrees with the new subject: one suitcase takes was, not were.

Incorrect:The email was send to all students.

Correct:The email was sent to all students.

Be needs the past participle sent, not the base form send, in this passive construction.

Incorrect:The shelves are clean every Friday by the staff.

Correct:The shelves are cleaned every Friday by the staff.

To express the action of cleaning the shelves, use cleaned after are. Clean can be an adjective describing their state, but it does not express the passive action of cleaning in this sentence.

Incorrect:The concert was happened in July.

Correct:The concert happened in July.

Happen has no object and therefore has no passive form here; the concert simply happened.

Incorrect:Did the boxes moved to the second floor?

Correct:Were the boxes moved to the second floor?

In this passive question, be itself is the auxiliary, so the question starts with were; did is unnecessary.

Sources

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