How and when is the passive voice used?

Basically, the passive voice is used to emphasize the action described by the sentence (and specifically by the verb). Who performs the action – more precisely, the person or thing – fades into the background and is often not known. The passive voice is far more common in written language, for example, in newspapers. Compare the possibilities below:

• In English, the use of the passive voice is typical …
  • … if it is evident by whom or what the action was performed and does not need to be mentioned:
    • “My dad was born in 1950.”
      • It is perfectly clear that his grandmother gave birth to him.
  • … if the person responsible for the action is unknown:
    • “My car was stolen last week.”
      • Who stole the car is unknown and also irrelevant to understanding the sentence.
  • … if the identity is to be concealed. Such utterances usually happen as a matter of courtesy:
    • “The coffee machine wasn’t switched off yesterday.”
      • In this case, the purpose is to avoid a direct accusation.

How is the passive voice formed?

The English passive voice is formed from the conjugated auxiliary verb ‘to be’ and the past participle of the respective verb. For regular verbs, the past participle is produced by appending the suffix ‘-ed’; for irregular verbs, the verb table lists the forms in the third column. The following applies:

Rule for passive formation

Conjugated form of ‘to be’ + past participle

In addition, when forming the passive, note that the subject of the active voice sentence becomes the object of the passive voice sentence. This new object is often omitted (in the examples below, this would be ‘Sue’ or ‘by Sue’). Now compare the formation of the English passive voice in the different tenses:

• Present simple:
  • “Sue prepares dinner.” → active voice
  • “Dinner is prepared (by Sue).” → passive voice
• Present progressive:
  • “Sue is preparing dinner.” → active voice
  • “Dinner is being prepared (by Sue).” → passive voice
• Present perfect simple:
  • “Sue has prepared dinner.” → active voice
  • “Dinner has been prepared (by Sue).” → passive voice
• Present perfect progressive:
  • “Sue has been preparing dinner.” → active voice
  • “Dinner has been being prepared (by Sue).” → passive voice
• Past simple:
  • “Sue prepared dinner.” → active voice
  • “Dinner was prepared (by Sue).” → passive voice
• Past progressive:
  • “Sue was preparing dinner.” → active voice
  • “Dinner was being prepared (by Sue).” → passive voice
• Past perfect simple:
  • “Sue had prepared dinner.” → active voice
  • “Dinner had been prepared (by Sue).” → passive voice
• Past perfect progressive:
  • “Sue had been preparing dinner.” → active voice
  • “Dinner had been being prepared (by Sue).” → passive voice
• Future simple (will):
  • “Sue will prepare dinner.” → active voice
  • “Dinner will be prepared (by Sue).” → passive voice
• Future perfect:
  • “Sue will have prepared dinner.” → active voice
  • “Dinner will have been prepared (by Sue).” → passive voice
• Conditional 1:
  • “Sue would prepare dinner.” → active voice
  • “Dinner would be prepared (by Sue).” → passive voice
• Conditional 2:
  • “Sue would have prepared dinner.” → active voice
  • “Dinner would have been prepared (by Sue).” → passive voice
• Auxiliary verbs (‘can, may, must, might’, etc.):
  • “Sue can prepare dinner.” → active voice
  • “Dinner can be prepared (by Sue).” → passive voice
  • “Dinner might be prepared (by Sue).” → passive voice
  • “Dinner must be prepared (by Sue).” → passive voice
  • Etc.

Particularities of the passive voice with ‘by’

As the examples above show, passive clauses may still indicate the person or thing performing the action. In English grammar, this performer is called the agent. The mentioning of the agent is done through the preposition ‘by’, but only if it provides useful or necessary additional information. So, compare the two different ways of using the passive voice with and without ‘by’:

• “The accident was caused by a cyclist.”
  • The addition ‘by a cyclist’ is critical, as otherwise required information would be missing from the context, which would render the sentence incomplete.
• “My wallet was stolen.”
  • By whom is unknown and needless to mention; it would be expressed with ‘by someone’.

Note also: Pronouns (‘me, you, him, it’, etc.) do not generally serve as agents. So, this would be an unsuitable statement: “The door was opened by you.”

Further explanations related to the topic ‘English passive voice’

The following explanations are related to the topic ‘Usage of the passive voice in English grammar’ and may be interesting as well:

• Conjugation of ‘to be’
• Modal verbs in English grammar
• What is a ‘subject’?
• What is an ‘object’?
• List of exercises about word order