When should I use the passive voice?

When the doer is unknown, unimportant, or obvious (My car was stolen; The suspect was arrested), or when you want to focus on the receiver of the action. In most everyday sentences, the active voice is shorter and clearer.

Can every verb be made passive?

No — only verbs that take an object (transitive verbs). Verbs like happen, arrive, sleep, and die have no object, so they have no passive form: The accident happened, never The accident was happened.

Level: B1-B2

The Passive Voice

Active: My aunt baked this cake. Passive: This cake was baked by my aunt. This guide covers the form (be + past participle) in every tense, when the passive is the right choice, the optional by-phrase, verbs that have no passive, and the mistakes learners make most — all with click-to-hear audio.

📝 Passive Voice unit · the guide + 2 practice lessons 🔊 click any example to hear it

What is the passive voice?

English sentences have two voices. In the active voice, the subject does the action. In the passive voice, the subject receives the action.

My aunt baked this cake. (active — the aunt does the baking)
This cake was baked by my aunt. (passive — the cake receives the baking)

Form: a form of be + the past participle. The tense lives in be; the past participle never changes.

The person or thing that does the action can be added with by — but only when it adds useful information:

The novel was written by a teenager. (the by-phrase is interesting — keep it)
My car was stolen last night. (the thief is unknown — no by-phrase)

When to use the passive

Use the passive when the doer of the action is:

Unknown — My bike was stolen yesterday. (who stole it? nobody knows)
Unimportant or obvious — The suspect was arrested this morning. (obviously by the police)
Less important than the receiver — This bridge was built in 1932. (the bridge is the topic, not the builders)

The passive is common in news, science, and formal writing: The results were published last month.

Passive forms in every tense

Only be changes; the past participle (here clean → cleaned) stays the same.

Tense	Passive form	Example
Simple present	am / is / are + p.p.	The office is cleaned every day.
Simple past	was / were + p.p.	The office was cleaned yesterday.
Present progressive	am / is / are being + p.p.	The office is being cleaned right now.
Past progressive	was / were being + p.p.	The office was being cleaned when I arrived.
Present perfect	has / have been + p.p.	The office has just been cleaned.
Past perfect	had been + p.p.	The office had been cleaned before the meeting.
Simple future	will be + p.p.	The office will be cleaned tomorrow.
Modal	can / must / should be + p.p.	The office must be cleaned by Friday.

The future progressive and perfect progressive passives (will be being cleaned) exist in theory but are so awkward that English speakers avoid them — you do not need them.

👉 Practice: Passive Forms Quiz — pick is / was / will be / has been / is being from the time clues.

How to turn active into passive

Three steps:

The active object becomes the passive subject.
The verb becomes be (in the same tense) + past participle.
The active subject moves into a by-phrase — or disappears.

Leonardo painted the Mona Lisa. (active)
The Mona Lisa was painted by Leonardo. (passive — same tense: simple past)

Someone has eaten the last cookie.
The last cookie has been eaten. ("by someone" adds nothing — drop it)

Verbs that cannot be passive

Only verbs that take an object (transitive verbs) can be passive — the object is what becomes the new subject. Verbs with no object (intransitive verbs) have no passive form: happen, arrive, die, sleep, fall, come, go.

The accident was happened last night.

The accident happened last night.

He was died in 1990.

He died in 1990.

See transitive vs intransitive verbs for the full lesson.

Common ESL mistakes

1. Forgetting be

The letter written by my grandmother.

The letter was written by my grandmother.

2. Using the past form instead of the past participle

The window was broke by the ball.

The window was broken by the ball.

With irregular verbs, the passive always takes the third form (write → wrote → written). See the irregular verbs list.

3. Making intransitive verbs passive

The plane was arrived on time.

The plane arrived on time.

4. Using from instead of by

This song was written from a famous poet.

This song was written by a famous poet.

👉 Practice: Active or Passive Quiz — classify 40 sentences by voice.

Forms at a glance

	Active	Passive
Present	They clean the office.	The office is cleaned.
Past	They cleaned the office.	The office was cleaned.
Present perfect	They have cleaned the office.	The office has been cleaned.
Future	They will clean the office.	The office will be cleaned.
Progressive	They are cleaning the office.	The office is being cleaned.
Modal	They must clean the office.	The office must be cleaned.

👉 Practice: Active or Passive Quiz · Passive Forms Quiz

Frequently asked questions

What is the passive voice?: In an active sentence, the subject does the action (My aunt baked this cake). In a passive sentence, the subject receives the action (This cake was baked by my aunt). The passive is formed with be + past participle.
When should I use the passive voice?: When the doer is unknown, unimportant, or obvious (My car was stolen; The suspect was arrested), or when you want to focus on the receiver of the action. In most everyday sentences, the active voice is shorter and clearer.
Can every verb be made passive?: No — only verbs that take an object (transitive verbs). Verbs like happen, arrive, sleep, and die have no object, so they have no passive form: The accident happened, never The accident was happened.