Understand how active and passive sentences work, master every major tense and complex structure, and learn how to transform passive sentences back into active voice accurately.
Voice is the way a sentence presents the relationship between an action and the people or things involved in it. In the active voice, the subject performs the action: “The scientist conducted the experiment.” In the passive voice, the receiver of the action becomes the grammatical subject: “The experiment was conducted by the scientist.” The event is essentially the same, but the focus changes. Mastering voice therefore requires more than memorising “be + past participle”: you must identify the verb, preserve its tense and meaning, move the correct object, choose the correct form of be, use the correct past participle, and decide whether the agent should be stated at all.
Voice is a grammatical feature of a verb phrase that shows how the subject relates to the action. English has two main voices used in ordinary sentence construction: active and passive.
In an active sentence, the subject is presented as the performer or source of the action. In a passive sentence, the subject is presented as the receiver of the action. Compare:
Active: The committee approved the proposal.
Passive: The proposal was approved by the committee.
The same proposal is approved, but the passive version places “the proposal” first and makes the committee less prominent.
Voice is not the same thing as tense. Tense tells us when an event is located in time; voice tells us how the participants are arranged grammatically. A sentence can therefore be past active, past passive, present perfect active, present perfect passive, future active, future passive, and so on.
The simplest active pattern is:
Subject + verb + object
The students completed the project.
“The students” = subject/doer; “completed” = verb; “the project” = direct object/receiver.
The crucial point is that the active verb must have an object if you want to form the ordinary passive. A verb that takes an object is called transitive. For example, “write a letter”, “open the door”, “solve the problem” and “build a bridge” contain transitive verbs.
Many verbs do not take a direct object in their ordinary use. These are intransitive verbs. For example: “The baby slept.” “The guests arrived.” “The children laughed.” You cannot normally make these sentences into ordinary passives because there is no object to move into subject position.
Active: The baby slept.
Passive: ✗ “The baby was slept.”
The problem is not the tense. “Slept” simply has no object that can become the passive subject.
The central passive pattern is:
New subject + appropriate form of BE + past participle (+ by + agent)
Active: The mechanic repaired the car.
Passive: The car was repaired by the mechanic.
The past participle is essential. For regular verbs it often ends in -ed, but many common verbs are irregular: write → written, take → taken, see → seen, make → made, choose → chosen.
Do not confuse a past participle with the simple past merely because they sometimes look identical. With a regular verb, worked can be both simple past and past participle. With an irregular verb, the distinction is obvious: wrote is simple past, whereas written is the past participle.
A reliable conversion method can be followed step by step.
Active: The engineers are testing the new machine.
1. Object: the new machine.
2. New subject: The new machine.
3. Tense: present continuous.
4. Passive auxiliary: is being.
5. Past participle: tested.
Final: The new machine is being tested by the engineers.
The most important rule is simple: do not change the tense when changing the voice. Instead, express the same tense through the passive form of be.
| Tense | Active | Passive |
|---|---|---|
| Present simple | The teacher checks the work. | The work is checked by the teacher. |
| Past simple | The teacher checked the work. | The work was checked by the teacher. |
| Future simple | The teacher will check the work. | The work will be checked by the teacher. |
| Present continuous | The teacher is checking the work. | The work is being checked by the teacher. |
| Past continuous | The teacher was checking the work. | The work was being checked by the teacher. |
| Present perfect | The teacher has checked the work. | The work has been checked by the teacher. |
| Past perfect | The teacher had checked the work. | The work had been checked by the teacher. |
| Future perfect | The teacher will have checked the work. | The work will have been checked by the teacher. |
| Modal | The teacher must check the work. | The work must be checked by the teacher. |
The passive construction adds the required form of be and uses the past participle. The tense is carried by the auxiliary structure: is checked, was checked, is being checked, has been checked, will be checked.
The present simple passive uses am / is / are + past participle.
Active: People speak English in many countries.
Passive: English is spoken in many countries.
Active: Workers clean the rooms every morning.
Passive: The rooms are cleaned every morning.
Active: The company employs hundreds of people.
Passive: Hundreds of people are employed by the company.
Notice that the new subject determines the form of be: the room is cleaned, but the rooms are cleaned.
The past simple passive uses was / were + past participle.
Active: The storm damaged several houses.
Passive: Several houses were damaged by the storm.
Active: The police arrested the suspect.
Passive: The suspect was arrested by the police.
Active: Someone stole my bicycle.
Passive: My bicycle was stolen.
When the active sentence is continuous, the passive form contains being. This is one of the most common places where learners make mistakes.
Active: The workers are repairing the road.
Passive: The road is being repaired by the workers.
Active: The workers were repairing the road.
Passive: The road was being repaired by the workers.
A common error is to write “The road is repaired” when the active sentence says “The workers are repairing the road.” is repaired is present simple passive; is being repaired is present continuous passive. The aspect changes the meaning.
Perfect tenses require been before the main past participle.
Present perfect active: The team has completed the project.
Present perfect passive: The project has been completed by the team.
Past perfect active: The team had completed the project.
Past perfect passive: The project had been completed by the team.
Future perfect active: The team will have completed the project.
Future perfect passive: The project will have been completed by the team.
Remember the sequence: has/have/had/will have + been + past participle.
The ordinary future passive is will be + past participle.
Active: The committee will announce the results tomorrow.
Passive: The results will be announced tomorrow.
Active: The company will launch the product next month.
Passive: The product will be launched next month.
Do not write “will is announced” or “will been announced.” After will, use the base form be: will be announced.
After a modal verb such as can, could, may, might, must, should, shall, will or would, the passive normally uses modal + be + past participle.
Active: You must follow the instructions.
Passive: The instructions must be followed.
Active: We can solve the problem.
Passive: The problem can be solved.
Active: They should complete the form.
Passive: The form should be completed.
Active: Scientists may discover a treatment.
Passive: A treatment may be discovered.
With a modal perfect, the pattern becomes modal + have been + past participle: “The team may have completed the work” → “The work may have been completed by the team.”
Questions keep their interrogative structure while the passive auxiliary comes before the subject.
| Active question | Passive question |
|---|---|
| Did the teacher mark the papers? | Were the papers marked by the teacher? |
| Does the company make these phones? | Are these phones made by the company? |
| Is the chef preparing the meal? | Is the meal being prepared by the chef? |
| Has the committee approved the plan? | Has the plan been approved by the committee? |
| Will the school publish the results? | Will the results be published by the school? |
| Can the machine produce ten units? | Can ten units be produced by the machine? |
When the active question begins with who and asks about the doer, the passive often uses by whom in formal English: “Who wrote the novel?” → “By whom was the novel written?” In ordinary modern English, “Who was the novel written by?” is also possible, although it is less formal.
Negation is placed after the first auxiliary in the passive verb phrase.
Active: The company does not manufacture these parts.
Passive: These parts are not manufactured by the company.
Active: They did not finish the bridge.
Passive: The bridge was not finished by them.
Active: The workers have not completed the task.
Passive: The task has not been completed by the workers.
Active: They cannot repair the machine.
Passive: The machine cannot be repaired by them.
Some verbs can take two objects, especially verbs such as give, send, offer, lend, show, teach, tell and buy. These can sometimes produce two possible passive constructions.
Active: The teacher gave the students extra work.
Passive 1: The students were given extra work by the teacher.
Passive 2: Extra work was given to the students by the teacher.
Both are grammatical, but the first passive focuses on the recipients, while the second focuses on the thing given. The same principle can apply to other ditransitive verbs, although the naturalness of each option varies from verb to verb.
Some verbs or verb phrases require a preposition. When these are made passive, the preposition often remains at the end of the clause or immediately after the passive verb phrase.
Active: Everyone laughed at the speaker.
Passive: The speaker was laughed at.
Active: Someone has looked after the child.
Passive: The child has been looked after.
Active: They have dealt with the problem.
Passive: The problem has been dealt with.
Do not remove the preposition: “The speaker was laughed” is incomplete if the intended active verb is laugh at.
Multi-word verbs can also occur in the passive. Their particles and prepositions normally stay with the verb phrase.
Active: The police called off the match.
Passive: The match was called off by the police.
Active: The manager turned down the proposal.
Passive: The proposal was turned down by the manager.
Active: The researchers carried out the experiment.
Passive: The experiment was carried out by the researchers.
The passive infinitive is to be + past participle.
Active: The manager expects the staff to complete the work.
Passive: The manager expects the work to be completed by the staff.
Active: We need someone to repair the roof.
Passive: We need the roof to be repaired.
Active: The committee wants people to follow the rules.
Passive: The committee wants the rules to be followed.
After a perfect infinitive, the passive form is to have been + past participle: “The scientist is believed to have discovered the substance” has a corresponding passive reporting interpretation discussed later.
When a gerund needs a passive meaning, use being + past participle.
Active idea: I dislike people interrupting me.
Passive gerund: I dislike being interrupted.
Active idea: She remembers people praising her.
Passive gerund: She remembers being praised.
For a perfect passive gerund, use having been + past participle: “He was proud of having been selected for the team.”
English frequently uses passive reporting verbs such as say, believe, think, know, expect, report, consider and understand. These structures are especially common in formal, academic and journalistic English.
It + passive reporting verb + that-clause: It is believed that the painting is authentic.
Subject + passive reporting verb + infinitive: The painting is believed to be authentic.
Past meaning can be expressed with a perfect infinitive: The scientist is believed to have discovered the compound.
These structures are useful when the speaker does not want to identify a particular source or when the statement is being presented as a general report.
The original subject of an active sentence becomes the agent in a passive sentence. The agent is introduced with by. However, the agent does not always need to be included.
| Include the agent when… | Omit the agent when… |
|---|---|
| The doer is important to the message. | The doer is unknown. |
| The doer is surprising or informative. | The doer is obvious from context. |
| You are contrasting two possible doers. | The doer is unimportant. |
| You need to identify responsibility. | You want to focus strongly on the result or process. |
Someone stole my phone. → My phone was stolen.
They built the bridge in 1990. → The bridge was built in 1990.
The Wright brothers invented the aircraft. → The aircraft was invented by the Wright brothers.
The editor rejected the article. → The article was rejected by the editor.
The passive is not automatically weak, bad or “wrong”. It is a useful grammatical choice when the receiver, process or result deserves more attention than the doer.
However, excessive passive voice can make writing vague if readers need to know who performed an important action. In such cases, an active sentence may be clearer.
| Active sentence | Passive sentence | Focus |
|---|---|---|
| The nurse recorded the temperature. | The temperature was recorded by the nurse. | Active = nurse; passive = temperature |
| The company changed the policy. | The policy was changed by the company. | Active = company; passive = policy |
| Scientists discovered the effect. | The effect was discovered by scientists. | Active = discoverers; passive = discovery |
| Someone damaged the door. | The door was damaged. | Passive hides/omits unknown agent |
In clear everyday writing, active voice is often more direct when the doer is important. In technical writing, reports and process descriptions, passive voice can be more useful when the process or result is the main focus. Good writing therefore uses voice deliberately, rather than treating one voice as universally superior.
Pronouns can change case when they move between subject and object positions. This is a frequent source of errors.
| Subject form | Object form | Possessive |
|---|---|---|
| I | me | my |
| we | us | our |
| he | him | his |
| she | her | her |
| they | them | their |
| who | whom | whose |
| you | you | your |
Active: They invited us.
Passive: We were invited by them.
The old subject “they” becomes an object of the preposition by, while the old object “us” becomes the new subject “we”.
Not every active sentence has a simple object followed by nothing else. Some verbs take an object plus an object complement, which describes or renames the object.
Active: The committee elected Maya chairperson.
Passive: Maya was elected chairperson by the committee.
Active: They painted the door blue.
Passive: The door was painted blue.
The complement does not become the new subject. The original object does.
English has another passive-like construction used when someone arranges for another person to perform a service. It is commonly called the causative construction.
I had my car repaired.
She got her hair cut.
They are having the house painted.
We will get the computer fixed tomorrow.
This is different from a normal passive in meaning. “My car was repaired” simply states what happened to the car. “I had my car repaired” suggests that I arranged for someone to repair it.
The ordinary passive requires an object that can function as the new subject. Therefore, a sentence with an intransitive verb usually cannot be converted directly.
The baby slept. → No ordinary passive.
The guests arrived. → No ordinary passive.
The accident happened. → No ordinary passive.
The children laughed. → No ordinary passive.
Some verbs can be transitive in one meaning and intransitive in another. Always analyse the particular sentence rather than memorising the verb alone.
Active: Someone opened the door. → The door was opened.
Intransitive: The door opened. → No transformation is required; it is already an active intransitive sentence.
A major complexity is that be + past participle can sometimes describe a passive event and sometimes describe a state. Compare:
The door was closed by the guard at 9:00. — This clearly presents an action/event performed by someone.
The door was closed all night. — This may simply describe the state of the door.
Context determines whether a past participle is functioning as part of a passive event or as a description of a resulting state. This is one reason why “be + past participle” should not be treated as a mechanical formula without considering meaning.
Informal English sometimes uses get + past participle instead of be + past participle. It often suggests a change of state, an event affecting someone, or a more conversational tone.
He got injured during the match.
She got promoted last year.
My phone got damaged in the rain.
Get-passives are common in conversation, but formal writing often prefers be-passives. The choice depends on register and meaning.
Long auxiliary chains can look complicated, but the principle remains the same: preserve the tense and aspect, insert the passive structure, and finish with the past participle.
Active: They have been repairing the bridge.
Passive: The bridge has been being repaired by them.
Active: They will have completed the project.
Passive: The project will have been completed by them.
The first passive above, has been being repaired, is grammatically possible because it preserves present perfect continuous meaning, but it is awkward and uncommon. Writers often choose a clearer alternative such as “The bridge has been under repair” or “The bridge has been repaired for several weeks,” depending on the intended meaning. This illustrates an important principle: grammatically possible does not always mean stylistically natural.
Changing passive into active is not simply “put by first”. You must identify the agent, move it into subject position, restore the original object, and preserve the tense.
Passive: The report was written by Sara.
Agent = Sara → new subject.
Passive subject = the report → new object.
Tense = past simple → active verb = wrote.
Active: Sara wrote the report.
| Passive | Active |
|---|---|
| The letter is written by Ali. | Ali writes the letter. |
| The letter was written by Ali. | Ali wrote the letter. |
| The letter is being written by Ali. | Ali is writing the letter. |
| The letter was being written by Ali. | Ali was writing the letter. |
| The letter has been written by Ali. | Ali has written the letter. |
| The letter had been written by Ali. | Ali had written the letter. |
| The letter will be written by Ali. | Ali will write the letter. |
| The letter must be written by Ali. | Ali must write the letter. |
| The letter can be written by Ali. | Ali can write the letter. |
| The letter should have been written by Ali. | Ali should have written the letter. |
Many passive sentences do not state who performed the action. In that case, converting them into active voice may require an inferred subject such as someone, people, they, the authorities, researchers or the company. You must not invent a specific agent that the passive sentence does not support.
Passive: The window was broken.
Safe active paraphrase: Someone broke the window.
Not justified: “The boy broke the window.” The passive sentence does not tell us that.
In some contexts, the best answer in an exercise may be “Someone broke the window” or “They broke the window,” but in real writing it can be better to keep the passive if the agent is genuinely unknown or irrelevant.
Passive: Was the package delivered by the courier?
Active: Did the courier deliver the package?
Passive: Has the proposal been approved by the committee?
Active: Has the committee approved the proposal?
Passive: Will the results be published by the school?
Active: Will the school publish the results?
Passive: The rules must be followed by all students.
Active: All students must follow the rules.
Passive: The problem can be solved by the technician.
Active: The technician can solve the problem.
Passive: The form should be completed by the applicant.
Active: The applicant should complete the form.
When a passive sentence began as a two-object active sentence, more than one active reconstruction may be possible.
Passive: The students were given extra work by the teacher.
Active: The teacher gave the students extra work.
Passive: Extra work was given to the students by the teacher.
Active: The teacher gave extra work to the students.
Before changing a sentence, ask three questions:
“The technician repaired the computer” answers Who repaired it? very directly. “The computer was repaired by the technician” answers What happened to the computer? more directly. Neither is inherently better; the appropriate choice depends on the purpose of the sentence.
| Structure | Passive formula | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Present simple | am/is/are + V3 | The room is cleaned. |
| Past simple | was/were + V3 | The room was cleaned. |
| Present continuous | am/is/are + being + V3 | The room is being cleaned. |
| Past continuous | was/were + being + V3 | The room was being cleaned. |
| Present perfect | has/have + been + V3 | The room has been cleaned. |
| Past perfect | had + been + V3 | The room had been cleaned. |
| Future | will + be + V3 | The room will be cleaned. |
| Modal | modal + be + V3 | The room must be cleaned. |
| Perfect modal | modal + have been + V3 | The room should have been cleaned. |
| Passive infinitive | to be + V3 | The room needs to be cleaned. |
| Passive gerund | being + V3 | He dislikes being watched. |
If you remember only the most important ideas, remember these:
1. Active → Passive: The researchers have analysed the data.
→ The data have been analysed by the researchers.
2. Active → Passive: The technicians were installing the software.
→ The software was being installed by the technicians.
3. Active → Passive: The school will publish the timetable.
→ The timetable will be published by the school.
4. Passive → Active: The experiment was conducted by the students.
→ The students conducted the experiment.
5. Passive → Active: The rules must be followed.
→ Students/Everyone must follow the rules. (The exact agent depends on context.)
6. Passive → Active: The child was looked after by her grandmother.
→ Her grandmother looked after the child.
This article is original EDUSAMBAM educational writing designed to explain active and passive voice from foundational to advanced sentence patterns. The examples are created for learning and practice rather than copied from a textbook. For formal academic work, learners should also consult a reliable grammar reference or the grammar guidance associated with their examination board.
Study note: Grammar terminology can vary slightly between textbooks, especially around stative passives, get-passives, reporting structures and complex verb phrases. What matters most is accurate analysis of the sentence's form, meaning and context.
15 questions. Select an answer for each, then submit to see your score instantly.