An introduction to the Passive

This is not so much aimed at advanced learners as at native speakers

whose grammar might have got a bit rusty, and who want to brush up on
the Passive.

Or at least be able to identify it.

At the same time you can refresh your memory on the English tense
system and how verbs work.

The Passive has had somewhat of a bad press in some circles, but perhaps one of the strangest
things is that many of its most fervent critics don't actually seem to know what it is. Here is just one
example, taken from the BBC News Styleguide:

The Active voice will help give your scripts some vitality and life. It can also make a weak
sentence more emphatic and give it greater impact. Compare these examples. The first is
in the Passive, the second Active:

There were riots in several towns in northern England last night, in which police
clashed with stone-throwing youths.

Youths throwing stones clashed with police during riots in several towns in
Northern England last night.

The second sentence might well be more vivid than the first, but it has absolutely nothing to do with
Active or Passive, as both sentences are in the Active. The there is/are construction may have its
faults, but being Passive is not one of them.

So what exactly is (and perhaps more importantly isn't) Passive? We shall now find out.

Introduction
You don't need to know any grammar terms as these will be introduced as we go along. I'll be using
the sort of grammar terms used in TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language), and these will be
kept to the bare minimum necessary.

Some of the material here has been re-cycled from a previous post, but is being presented here in a
way which I hope is more suitable for an introduction the Passive.

To be able to use the Passive in all its forms, we first need to be totally familiar with the five verb forms
and twelve Active tenses of English.

I'm not suggesting that native speakers aren't instinctively aware of these forms and tenses, but they
may not know what we call them.
The five verb forms in English
English has five verb forms. That's not a lot compared with many languages. Thanks to the use of
auxiliary verbs, also known as (aka) helping verbs, we can construct all our tenses from just these five
forms. And in many verbs two of these forms are the same; and in a few verbs, even three of the forms
are the same.

The only exception to this is the verb to be, which we will look at a little later.

Form AKA Regular Irregular 1 Irregular 2 Irregular 3

1st form base form work have write put
2nd form past form worked had wrote put
3rd form past participle worked had written put
-ing form present participle / gerund working having writing putting
-s form 3rd person singular works has writes puts
The twelve Active tenses
Not everyone agrees on what comprises a tense, but in TEFL we work on the basis of twelve Active
tenses, each combining a time (present, past or future) with an aspect (simple, continuous, perfect
simple and perfect continuous). Continuous forms are also sometimes called progressive forms.

Exercise 1 - Complete each sentence by entering the verb write in one of the five verb forms.

Present
Simple I write lots of emails every day.
- 3rd person sg She often writes to her friends.
Continuous He is writing a book at the moment.
Perfect simple We have written to the Council to complain.
Perfect continuous She has been writing emails all morning.

Past
Simple He wrote two articles yesterday.
Continuous He was writing all day.
Perfect simple We had written to them to tell them we were coming.
Perfect continuous She was tired because she had been writing all day.

Future
Simple I will write to you tomorrow.
Continuous She will be writing letters at this time tomorrow.
Perfect simple By 5 pm he will have written three reports.
Perfect continuous Soon he will have been writing for ten hours.

Infinitive and gerund

Infinitive I need to write to my cousin.
Gerund She just loves writing to her friends.
Exercise 2 - Select what Active tense is being used in each of these sentences.

1. He had already eaten. past perfect

2. She'll be having her lunch at that time. future continuous
3. He's talking to Peter at the moment. present continuous
4. Has she been to the bank yet? present perfect
5. He probably won't have finished it by then. future perfect
6. I had been meaning to buy a new one. past perf. cont.
7. She went there yesterday. past simple
8. No worries, I'll do it later. future simple
9. Very soon we'll have been waiting for half-an-hour.
10. He goes to the gym at least twice a week. present simple
11. She was wearing a light brown raincoat. past continuous
12. I've been writing grammar exercises all morning. pres. perf. cont.
Subjects and objects
Have a look at these Active sentences:

Tom kissed Patricia

Tom gave Patricia a book
Tom is walking along the road

In all three sentences, Tom is the "doer". In the Active, the Subject is always the doer, so in all three
sentences Tom is the subject.

In the first question, who or what did Tom kiss? He kissed Patricia. Patricia is the Direct Object

In the second sentence, who or what did Tom give? He gave a book. So a book is the Direct Object.
Who did he give it to? To Patricia. She is the Indirect Object.

In the last sentence, Tom didn't walk anything, he just walked. There is no object.

Transitive and intransitive

Verbs that take a direct object are referred to as transitive, and those that don't are called intransitive.
A good dictionary will tell you whether a verb is transitive or intransitive.

Tom kissed Patricia - transitive

Tom gave Patricia a book - transitive

Tom is walking along the road - intransitive

Tom lives in London. - intransitive

Some verbs can be both transitive and intransitive:

What's Anne reading? - She's reading 'Harry Potter'. - transitive

What's Mary doing? - She's upstairs reading. - intransitive
Agents and targets
Look at this sentence:

Johannes Gutenberg (probably) invented the printing press in the 15th Century.

Johannes Gutenberg, the subject, is the doer; he did the inventing. The doer is also known as the the
agent (in red), So here the subject and the agent (doer) are the same.

The object of his inventing, the printing press, is sometimes called the target (in green), or the receiver,
or (especially by linguists) the patient, or undergoer. I'll stick with target, as I think it's easier to
understand. Here the object and the target are the same thing.

But look what happens when we turn it into a Passive:

The printing press was invented by Guttenberg

The printing press was invented in the 15th Century.

The subject of the Passive verb is no longer the agent (or doer), but the target, the object of the Active
sentence. The agent may follow the Passive verb, linked to it with by; or more commonly, not be
mentioned at all.

Note that we don't usually use by with personal pronouns.

They have serviced my car. - Active

My car has been serviced by them. - Passive

He gave my sister a book. - Active

My sister was given a book by him. - Passive

Action verbs and state verbs

They serve breakfast every morning from seven o'clock.
She owns a lovely house in the country.

The first verb, serve, describes an action; it is 'an action verb'. The second verb describes a state; it's a
'state verb'. Even though state verbs can sometimes be transitive, we don't normally use them in the
Passive:

Breakfast is served every morning from seven o'clock.

A lovely house in the country is owned by her.
When can we use the Passive?
Exercise 3 - Complete the rules

Rule 1. The Passive can only be constructed from suitable transitive verbs
transitive - intransitive

Rule 2. The Passive is not usually constructed from state verbs.

action - state

Rule 3. The Passive is constructed with a suitable form of the verb to be and the 3rd form of the
main verb.
1st form - 2nd form - 3rd form - -ing form

Rule 4. When the agent is unknown, obvious or not important, we miss it out.
agent - target

Rule 5. If we do mention it, we connect it with the preposition by .

of - by
Why should we want to use the Passive?
There are about eight or nine reasons why the Passive is a useful construction. Here I'll look at just
three or four.

1. Emphasis is usually on the subject.

In English, the main idea usually comes at or near the beginning of the sentence, as the subject; this is
where the emphasis is. So if we want to emphasise the thing that was done, or who it was done to,
rather than the doer, the Passive is a good way to do it.

The Chinese invented or discovered gunpowder, the compass, papermaking and printing
(Active) - we are interested in the achievements of the Chinese

Paper was invented by the Chinese (Passive) - we are interested in the history of paper.

2. Leading from one sentence to the next.

New ideas are often introduced at the end of a sentence, so if we want to follow on from one sentence
or clause to another, the Passive is one useful way to do it.

In Britain, the 5th November is a night for firework displays. Fireworks are made from
gunpowder, which was discovered by Chinese alchemists in the 9th century.

The Chinese invented or discovered gunpowder, the compass, papermaking and printing.
These are known as the Four Great Inventions.

3. When we are not interested in who did an action.

Sometimes the doer, known as the agent, is unknown, obvious or not important.

My house was broken into last week. (I don't know who by)

A man has just been arrested for burglary. (presumably by the police)

Some important government documents have been found in a rubbish bin. (does it really
matter who by?)

4. It provides some structural variety

In a language where the sentence order of SVO (Subject - Verb - Object) is so important, occasional
use of the Passive can add variety to a piece of text, as I hope the next exercise shows.
The Taj Mahal - a case study

By Yann; edited by King of Hearts, via Wikimedia Commons

Exercise 4 - Look at this text loosely based on the entry at Wikipedia. Tick the boxes where you
think the line would be better in the Passive, check your answers then click on 'Show my
version'.

Change to Passive
If you are ever in Uttar Pradesh in northern India, you must visit the Taj Mahal.
Shah Jahan built this architectural masterpiece in the 17th century.

Jahan was the Mughal Emperor at a time of great prosperity in the empire.
But sadly his third wife, Mumtaz Mahal, died in childbirth,
and grief overcame Shah Jahan.
So he decided to build a mausoleum in her memory.

People widely recognize the Taj Mahal as the 'jewel in the crown' of Muslim art in India.
It is the finest example of Mughal architecture,
which combines elements from Persian, Turkish and Indian architectural styles.

Construction began in 1632.

They completed the principal mausoleum in 1648,
and finished the surrounding buildings and gardens five years later.

While people constructed early Mughal buildings mainly in red sandstone,

Shah Jahan promoted the use of white marble inlaid with semi-precious stones.
and buildings under his patronage reached new levels of refinement.
The verb to be
Now fill in all the forms of the verb to be. Knowing the names of these helps when we come to dicuss
the construction of the Passive.

Exercise 5 - Enter the correct forms of to be to complete the tenses

Present
Simple
I I am a teacher by profession.
he, she, it She is very intelligent.
we, you, they They are married.
Continuous
I I am being ironic of course.
he, she, it She is being very kind to me today.
we, you, they You are being very naughty at the moment.
Perfect
he, she, it I have been a teacher for a long time.
I, we, you, they It has been very cold these last few days.

Past
Simple
I, he, she, it He was a student at that time.
we, you, they They were the first to move here.
Continuous
I, he, she, it She was being strange all day yesterday.
we, you, they Even though we were being very nice to her.
Perfect
all He had been a lawyer before he became a politician.

Future
Simple - all He will be a teacher
Continuous -
Perfect Simple - all will have been a teacher

Infinitive and gerund

Infinitive I need to be nice my cousin.
Gerund She just loves being nice to her friends.

Note - We don't usually use the verb to be in Perfect continuous forms or the Future continuous, as
putting two 'be' words (been being etc.) together sounds a bit strange. The same is true for the
Passive, where we normally only use eight tenses.

Constructing the Passive

You now have everything you need to construct the Passive. For each Passive tense in the exercise,
use the appropriate form of to be followed by the past participle (3rd form) of the main verb, e.g. Past
Simple - She was interviewed

George Parr is an investment analyst with the city firm of Parr, Boyle and Fry. His wife Catherine is a
historian, a specialist in the later years of the reign of Henry VIII. Both of them give interviews quite
frequently, but this week, what with the new allegations of companies 'cooking the books' and the
forthcoming TV costume drama series "The wife that survived", they are having a particularly busy
week.

Exercise 6 - Complete the sentences using the Passive tenses of interview

Present

Simple On average Mr. Parr is interviewed about once a week.

Continuous In fact both Parrs are being interviewed right now.
Perfect Catherine Parr has been interviewed twice already this week.

Past

Simple She was interviewed once yesterday in Bristol.

Continuous At the same time her husband was being interviewed in London.
Perfect He had been interviewed twice already that morning.

Future

Simple (will) And probably he will be interviewed again next week.

Perfect By Saturday he will have been interviewed five times.

Other

Infinitive They are to be interviewed together tomorrow.

Going to Both of them are going to be interviewed tomorrow.
Modal In fact he might be interviewed twice tomorrow.
Modal perfect They must have been interviewed hundreds of times.
Putting it into practice
Exercise 7 - Rewrite the sentence in the Passive, using exactly the same tense as the Active
original. Where the agent (doer) is not important, leave it out.

1. They were repairing the road last night.

The road was being repaired last night.
2. The mayor will inaugurate the tram system.
The new tram system will be inaugurated by the mayor.
3. Jane Austen wrote Pride and Prejudice.
Pride and Prejudice was written by Jane Austen.
4. Something could have delayed her.
She could have been delayed.
5. They had closed the road for repairs.
The road had been closed for repairs.
6. The BBC are to introduce a new radio service.
A new radio service is to be introduced by the BBC.
7. They might cancel the concert.
The concert might be cancelled.
8. Fifty thousand people will have visited the new centre by the end of the week.
The centre will have been visited by 50,000 people by the end of the week.
9. Somebody is going to unveil the new monument tomorrow.
The new monument is going to be unveiled tomorrow.
10. They are giving her the details right now.
She is being given the details right now.
11. People often ask me a lot of stupid questions.
I am often asked a lot of stupid questions.
12. The Queen has opened a new footbridge over the Thames.
A new footbridge over the Thames has been opened by the Queen.
Recognising the Passive 1. Active or Passive?
Now that you know what the Passive is, make sure you can correctly identify it. All of the following
sentences, or sentences very like them, have been identified as Passive by intelligent writers. But only
seven out of the twelve sentences are in fact in the Passive. See if you can do better than those
writers.

After you've done the exercise, read my comments.

Exercise 8 Look carefully at these sentences and mark them Active or Passive. The last four
are in headline format, so you will have to work out the full sentence.

Active Passiv
e
1. There were riots in several towns in Northern England last night.
2. Fortunately, the riots were quickly brought under control.
3. But only after several hundred people had been arrested.
4. Henry was totally amazed by all the interest shown in his project.
5. Henry was obviously very interested in completing his project.
6. The interest that has been shown in Henry's project is amazing.
7. MI (Military Intelligence) has told them not to talk to the press.
8. MI (Military Intelligence) have been told to not to talk to the press.
9. New Shooting Spoils Hopes of Truce
10. Peace Treaty Threatened By New Shooting.
11. Bomb in City Centre Detonated in Controlled Explosion.
12. Bus Explodes in City Centre Causing Considerable Damage.
Recognizing the Passive 2 - Passive, adjective or Perfect?
As we have just seen, the Passive sometimes gets confused with adjectives based on past participles
, and with Active Perfect and Past tenses.

Exercise 9 - Decide whether the underlined past participles are part of a Passive construction
(Pass), adjectives (Adj), or being used in an Active Perfect or Past tense (Act)

Pass Adj Act

1. He was surprised by the security man as he was robbing the till.
2. She was surprised at the reaction to her speech.
3. The young pianist's performance surprised the critics.
4. The crisis has depressed wages in many sectors.
5. When the accelerator pedal is depressed, the car goes faster.
6. She's been depressed since the accident.
7. He was tired of constantly being hounded by the press.
8. He has tired of all the press attention he has been getting.
9. He had been tired out by all the constant press attention.
10. She must have confused this man with somebody else.
11. He is easily confused by the smallest problem.
12. I'm confused. Is today Wednesday or Thursday?
13. As a young man he felt alone and misunderstood.
14. His speech has been misunderstood by a lot of people.
15. You have completely misunderstood what I was saying.
Passive-like constructions
There are a couple of forms very similar to the Passive, often referred to as Passive-like. They use a
similar construction to the Passive, but with different verbs instead of be. They are not usually
considered as being Passive Voice.

We got done!

In informal language, we often use a passive-like expression with get.

She got caught cheating.

We got soaked in the rain yesterday.
He got arrested for fraud.

You can read more about this in my post on the many uses of the verb get

Have something done

We use this expression when we get somebody else to do something for us, usually for money. In EFL
it's often called causative have. Get can sometimes be used in the same way.

We're having this room repainted soon.

I think I'll get my hair cut tomorrow.
He's just had his car serviced.
She's getting her garden seen to at the weekend.

You can read more about this in my post on causative verbs.

Final thoughts
Some sentences sound better in the Active
But equally, some sentences sound better in the Passive
Not all Active sentences can be made Passive
And not all Passive sentences can meaningfully be made Active
The Passive is used quite often and doesn't have to sound formal or longwinded
It's easy to be over formal and too wordy only using Active sentences
Some Active verbs can express a passive idea. But that doesn't make them grammatically
Passive.

Some non-formal examples of the Passive

Apparently he was born in Hungary.
They were married in the local church.
It's supposed to be a genuine Rolex, but I have my doubts.
She's meant to be arriving any minute.
Do you know his first book was published when he was only 15. Amazing!
Peter's flight has been delayed because of some strike or other.
It's a shame the youth club was so badly damaged in last year's fire.
We came by bus because the car's being serviced today.
The report? The final version is being typed up as we speak.
He was had up for speeding twice last year.

Some even less formal examples of the Passive

Some of these examples use very colloquial language, or language used by certain groups. They
are not necessarily being put forward as examples of wonderful English. On the other hand they
are all, as far as I'm aware, grammatically perfect.
Three quid for a coffee! You've been done there, mate!
Would you believe it! I've just been given the heave-ho. Again!
Late again! You're fired!
I've had enough of being screwed around like this.
Some ref he is! We were robbed!
Don't tell me you fell for that email scam. You're so easily had!
I've been tweeted three times this week. And 'liked' on Facebook.
Like I was so not taken in by his smarmy charm!
I just can't be bothered with his arty-farty friends.
So I use the Passive sometimes! Am I bothered?

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