Passives

Do you know how to use the passive voice to change the focus of a sentence? Test what you know with interactive exercises and read the explanation to help you.

Look at these examples to see how the passive voice is used.

A lot of olive oil is produced in Italy.
This book was written by Angela Davis.
The suspect will be released tomorrow.
This product has not been tested on animals.

Try this exercise to test your grammar.

Grammar test 1: Grammar B1-B2: Passives: 1

Read the explanation to learn more.

Grammar explanation

We use the passive voice to change the focus of the sentence.

My bike was stolen. (passive – focus on my bike)
Someone stole my bike. (active – focus on someone)

We often use the passive:

when we prefer not to mention who or what does the action (for example, it's not known, it's obvious or we don't want to say)
so that we can start a sentence with the most important or most logical information
in more formal or scientific writing.

How we make the passive

We make the passive using the verb be + past participle. We start the sentence with the object.

Avatar	was	directed by James Cameron.
↓	↓	↓
Object	+ be +	past participle

It is not always necessary to add who or what did the action.

My flight	is	cancelled.
↓	↓	↓
Object	+ be +	past participle

Only the form of be changes to make the tense. The past participle stays the same. Here are examples of the passive in its most common tenses.

Tense	Example	Structure
Present simple	Alioli is made from oil, garlic and salt.	is/are + past participle
Present continuous	The hall is being painted this week.	is/are being + past participle
Past simple	John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963.	was/were + past participle
Past continuous	The signs were being put up last week.	was/were being + past participle
Present perfect	Oranges have been grown here for centuries.	has/have been + past participle
Past perfect	When he got home, he found that his flat had been burgled.	had been + past participle
Future simple	The work will be finished next week.	will be + past participle

Do this exercise to test your grammar again.

Grammar test 2: Grammar B1-B2: Passives: 2

Try another grammar lesson

Language level

B1 Intermediate

Hello Bryan______,

All of these sentences are correct. Target (like similar verbs such as aim and focus (on), and also verbs such as comprise, form and make up) can be used with the same meaning in both active and passive voice with essentially the same meaning.

Peter

The LearnEnglish Team

Junior students are being targeted by the program. I think is the passive of the sentence as passive requires a "be" form..

Hi,
I think there is a mistake in the first exercise in the following sentence;

The fire service still ___ the fire.
The options given are:
wasn't put out.
is put out.
haven't put out.

The third answer is supposed to be the correct one! But it should be "has not put out" since the agent is an "it."

Hi bkbilal97,

Actually, in British English it is common to use a third person plural verb form even for singular nouns, if the noun represents a group of people. Such nouns include government, team, band, company, gang and many more. For example, it's common to say The band are really good (as well as The band is really good), or The government have made an announcement (as well as The government has made ...).

Jonathan

The LearnEnglish Team

Hello team
Kindly help me change this sentence to passive.
People thought that the cover was made of iron.
I am confused when the first and second verb are in past form. Will we use to infinitve or to have V3/ed form for the second verb?
Kind regards!

Hi tunalee,

I would say --> The cover was thought to be made of iron.

After "was thought" it's also common to use an adjective (e.g. It was thought necessary / It was thought impossible). However, it's not common to put an -ed verb form there (e.g. The cover was thought made of iron), so I think the full form thought to be made ... is preferred.

I hope that helps.

Jonathan

The LearnEnglish Team

Hello team
Kindly help me change this sentence to passive.
Experts say that the rains will be heavy this year .

Hi paddyjosy,

There are a couple of ways I can think of.

It is said (by experts) that the rains will be heavy this year.
The rains are said (by experts) to be heavy this year.

In the second sentence, "are said" is followed by the infinitive "to be", which loses the future reference of the original sentence ("will be"). We can, however, keep that meaning by changing the vocabulary (e.g. "The coming rains are said to be heavy this year" or "The rains later this year are said to be heavy").

I hope that helps.

Jonathan

The LearnEnglish Team