In an active voice sentence, the subject does something.
A mosquito bit Paul. (ACTIVE voice) Subject–Verb–Object
In a passive voice sentence, something happens to the subject.
Paul was bitten by a mosquito. (PASSIVE voice) Subject–Verb–Object
In a Passive Voice sentence, the action that the subject receives will be in the past participle, following a form of the verb TO BE
Many of my private and company English students can be confused using the passive voice, so I was inspired to write this blog post.
What is the Passive voice in English grammar?
If the subject of our sentence gets or receives something (something happens to the subject) we use the passive voice.
“Paul was bitten by a mosquito.”
Passive voice rules
Passive voice uses the verb to be (am, is, are, was, were) plus the past participle form of the verb in the main action
“Paul was bitten by a mosquito.”
(bitten is the past participle of the verb TO BITE)
What’s the difference between the Passive voice and the Active voice?
In an active voice sentence, the subject does something.
A mosquito bit Paul. (ACTIVE voice) Subject–Verb–Object
In a passive voice sentence, something happens to the subject.
Paul was bitten by a mosquito. (PASSIVE voice) Subject–Verb–Object
Is the Passive Voice wrong?
No. Using the passive voice is sometimes discouraged in English writing but it is still correct. Using the active voice makes your writing more direct, the subject of your sentence is being or doing something, but the passive voice is important too.
If you want to change the focus of your story the passive voice is helpful. Let’s look at our original examples.
- A mosquito bit Paul. (A mosquito is the main focus of this sentence. We can understand the situation.)
- Paul was bitten by a mosquito. (This sentence is focusing more on what happened to Paul. We are concerned about Paul.)
Keep reading for more examples of when to use the passive voice.
“But the passive voice is not incorrect. In fact, there are times when it can come in handy.”
Grammarly
Passive Voice Infographic
When to use the Passive Voice
The first example from this post of the passive voice is not something I would say in natural conversation. It would be much more natural to use the active voice and say “A mosquito bit Paul.”
BUT… There are times when it feels natural to use the passive voice in conversation. Especially when the person who performs the action is unknown or not important to the story.
Look at the following examples:
- The hotel rooms are cleaned every morning before 11:00.
In this example, you know that hotel rooms are cleaned but not who cleans them. The focus of the sentence is that the rooms are cleaned every morning.
- The lost and found office at the station is full of umbrellas that were forgotten on the train.
Who forgot the umbrellas is very easy to understand, but it is not important to our story. The focus of our sentence is the number of umbrellas in the lost and found office. A lot! The people who forgot them are not important to our story.
Another way that we use the passive voice is to show how something affected us.
- I was shocked by the end of the movie.
This is much more natural than the active version:
- The end of the movie shocked me.
More examples:
- We were impressed with her presentation.
- She was surprised by how tall he was.
Passive Voice example sentences
Next week is my mother’s birthday and I will order flowers for her online.
Let’s use this situation with the passive voice using different verb tenses.
Something is happening to the flowers, the subject of our sentences.
| Verb tense TO BE | Active | Passive |
| Infinitive | We need to deliver these flowers by 5:00. | These flowers need to be delivered by 5:00. |
| Simple present | We deliver flowers every day. | Flowers are delivered every day. |
| Present continuous | We are delivering flowers right now. | Flowers are being delivered right now. |
| Simple past | We delivered flowers 2 days ago. | Flowers were delivered 2 days ago. |
| Past continuous | We were delivering the flowers when you called. | The flowers were being delivered when I phoned the florist. |
| Future | We will deliver the flowers next Tuesday. | The flowers will be delivered next Tuesday. |
| Present perfect | Our company has delivered flowers in Canada for many years. | Flowers have been delivered in Canada since 1877. |
| Past perfect | We had delivered the flowers before your mom got home. | The flowers had been delivered before my mom got home. |
| Future perfect | We will have delivered the flowers by then. | My mom gets home at 5:30. The flowers will have been delivered by then. |
| Future conditional | We will deliver your flowers if there are no problems with your credit card. | The flowers will be delivered if there are no problems with your credit card. |
| Past conditional | We would have delivered your flowers if we had enough roses. | The flowers would have been delivered if we had enough roses. |
Passive Voice examples PDF
Download this chart as a PDF at the link below ↓
The preposition BY with the PASSIVE VOICE
We use the preposition BY if we want to say what caused the action.
- I was shocked BY the end of the movie.
- She was surprised BY how tall he was.
- Paul was bitten BY a mosquito.
- The cake had been eaten BY my family!
Sometimes we just want to add more information to our story.
- The umbrellas were forgotten BY busy commuters.
- The hotel rooms are cleaned every morning BY the hardworking staff.
*Remember: Paul was bitten BY a mosquito.
Bonus #1 Past Participle examples
The past participle is a verb form used for making the perfect tense (had given – have given – will have given) and for the passive voice (She was given a new computer).
Learn more about the perfect tense here – How to use the Present Perfect Tense (English Grammar)
Remember that we use the correct tense of the verb to be with the past participle form of the verb from the main action to make a passive voice sentence.
| To bite |
|---|
| Present tense ~ bite |
| Present tense third person singular ~ bites |
| Past tense ~ bit |
| Past participle ~ bitten |
Paul was bitten by a mosquito. (Bitten is the past participle of the verb To bite.)
Learn more about the past participle here – Past and Past Participle of READ (PDF + Video) Easy Grammar
A common example of the past participle that maybe you have heard before is eaten. This is the past participle of the verb to eat
| To eat |
|---|
| Present tense ~ eat |
| Present tense third person singular ~ eats |
| Past tense ~ ate |
| Past participle ~ eaten |
- When I got to the party I was too late to have cake. My family had eaten everything! They didn’t save me a piece.
HAD EATEN is the past perfect tense.
- The cake had been eaten!
This is the perfect tense passive voice. (BEEN is the past participle of the verb TO BE.)
| To forget |
|---|
| Present tense ~ forget |
| Present tense third person singular ~ forgets |
| Past tense ~ forgot |
| Past participle ~ forgotten |
“Alex had forgotten to pack his toothbrush, so he had to buy one from the drug store beside his hotel.”
Past perfect
“The lost and found office at the station is full of umbrellas that were forgotten on the train.”
Passive voice
For all regular verbs (verbs whose past tense is ~ed) the past participle and the past tense are the same.
| To clean |
|---|
| Present tense ~ clean |
| Present tense third person singular ~ cleans |
| Past tense ~ cleaned |
| Past participle ~ cleaned |
“My brother said he cleaned his room this morning, but he didn’t He just watched TV.”
Past tense
“The hotel rooms are cleaned every morning before 11:00.”
Past participle (Passive voice)
Some irregular verbs also use the same form for the past and past participle.
| To buy |
|---|
| Present tense ~ buy |
| Present tense third person singular ~ buys |
| Past tense ~ bought |
| Past participle ~ bought |
“Have you ever bought something and then felt like it was a mistake the next day?”
Past participle with the present perfect
“The painting was bought by a private collector in 1911 and it was given to the museum by his family in 1976.”
Passive voice
Passive voice in English – More examples
- Harry was struck by lightning!
| To strike |
|---|
| Present tense ~ strike |
| Present tense third person singular ~ strikes |
| Past tense ~ struck |
| Past participle ~ struck |
| To promote |
|---|
| Present tense ~ promote |
| Present tense third person singular ~ promote |
| Past tense ~ promoted |
| Past participle ~ promoted |
- Brian was promoted after just 6 months.
Compare Passive Voice and Active Voice
- The company promoted Brian after just 6 months.
*The company is the subject in this sentence so we use the active voice. The company did something, it promoted Brian. In this sentence promoted is the past tense of promote, not the past participle. (The past tense and the past participle are the same!)
We can also use the verb GET in the passive voice. (This is used in conversation.)
We will use the correct form of the verb to get instead of to be.
- I can’t believe Brian got promoted after only 6 months!
- There was a big car accident on the street in front of my office. Luckily no one got hurt.
Hurt is one of a few verbs that don’t change between present, past and the past participle.
| To hurt |
|---|
| Present tense ~ hurt |
| Present tense third person singular ~ hurts |
| Past tense ~ hurt |
| Past participle ~ hurt |
Bonus #2 Perfect Tense + The Passive Voice
I mentioned above that the past participle is used with the passive voice and with perfect tense grammar. The perfect tense can be used with the passive voice.
We will use HAVE plus BEEN (the past participle of the verb TO BE) for the perfect passive voice.
Take a look at the following examples.
- The cake had been eaten.
- When I got home I saw that the fridge door had been left open!
| To leave |
|---|
| Present tense ~ leave |
| Present tense third person singular ~ leaves |
| Past tense ~ left |
| Past participle ~ left |
Check out these other great posts
- 31 English Idioms with EYE (Free PDF – Real Examples)
- Explore the Power of the Prefix Off- A Comprehensive Guide
- BORROW vs LEND – Your best guide (25 examples, PDF, Video)
- What’s the difference between SAY and TELL? (I’ll TELL you the answer)
- Learn English from TV – A complete guide (3 Tips)
- English Spring vocabulary (10 New words + PDF download)
- Make Yourself at Home: 27 Common House Idioms (Free PDF)
Learning a verb’s past participle form is important for using the passive voice. This is a link for “50 Most Common Irregular Verbs” from ESL-Lounge.com
