Look at these examples to see how the passive voice is used.
The interview was recorded yesterday.
Cleaner sources of energy must be developed.
An electrical fault is believed to have caused the power cut.
Try this exercise to test your grammar.
- Grammar test 1
Grammar explanation
We can use the passive voice to change the focus of the sentence.
Aliya Monier directed the film.
(focus on Aliya Monier)The film was directed by Aliya Monier.
(focus on The film)
We often use the passive:
- so that we can start a sentence with the most important or most logical information
- 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)
- in more formal or scientific writing.
Be + past participle
The most common way to form the passive is subject + be + past participle.
The new smoke alarm was installed yesterday.
The 'doer' of the action is called the agent. Most of the time, the agent is not mentioned, but if important, the agent can be mentioned using the preposition by.
The new smoke alarm was installed yesterday by the company director herself.
We can also use the passive voice with modal verbs such as can, must and should, by using modal + be + past participle.
A podcast can be made with minimal resources.
The accident must be reported to the police.
New laws should be created to regulate electric scooters.
The passive with get
In informal English, get is sometimes used instead of be to form the passive.
My bicycle got stolen last night.
(= My bicycle was stolen last night.)
The impersonal passive
The impersonal passive is used with reporting verbs such as allege, believe, claim, consider, estimate, expect, know, report, say, think, understand, etc. It reports what an unspecified group of people say or believe.
The impersonal passive has two forms:
it + be + past participle + (that) + subject + verb:
It is estimated that millions of people visit the site every year.
It is believed that the walls date from the third century BCE.
It is reported that mosquitoes transmit the disease.
someone/something + be + past participle + infinitive:
Millions of people are estimated to visit the site every year.
The walls are believed to date from the third century BCE.
Mosquitoes are reported to transmit the disease.
Note that the infinitive can be simple (as above), perfect (for a past action) or continuous (for an action in progress).
Millions are estimated to visit the site this year. (simple infinitive)
The walls are believed to have been built in the third century BCE. (perfect infinitive)
Mosquitoes are reported to be transmitting the disease. (continuous infinitive)
Do this exercise to test your grammar again.
- Grammar test 2
Hello CocoChanel,
What exactly these might mean is difficult to say for certain without knowing more, but in general the difference is in the time speaker thinks they were told to do it. The first statement is more general; it's clear they were told to do it in the past, but beyond that there's not much information, which is probably just fine most of the time.
The second statement could suggest that the speaker remembers a time in the past when they were aware at that time in the past that previously someone had told them to do it. If my supposition about the speaker's meaning is correct, then the first statement could be different -- it could mean that the speaker is remembering the time they were told to do it.
But I must insist that I might be reading too much into the statements. More context or more knowledge of the speaker's intentions are needed to really make sense of any possible difference here. In general, unless nuance is important, I'd recommend using the first statement.
Hope this helps.
Best wishes,
Kirk
LearnEnglish team
Hello! can we also change for "English is estimated to be spoken by 1.35 billion people" or it is not correct in meaning or sounds strange
Hi Elf_35,
Yes, that's absolutely fine! It's correctly written and it has the same meaning as the sentence in the exercise.
Jonathan
LearnEnglish team
Yes, your sentence is correct. But in the multiple choice above, the last choice goes: It is estimate that 1.35 billion people... Estimate supposed to be estimated.
what is the diffrence between the sport of curling is tought to have been invented in scothland and the sport of curling is tought to be invented in scothland
Hello Gangster2.0,
> We use 'thought/said/claimed/believed (etc) to have verb3' [...to have been invented] to show that something happened in the past.
> We use 'thought/said/claimed/believed (etc) to be' [...to be invented] to show that something happens in the present or will happen in the future.
For example:
Obviously in your example the invention happened in the past, so the first option is the correct one.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
what is the diffrence between the sport of curling is tought to have been invented in scothland and the sport of curling is tought to be invented in scothland
Hi oyo,
The sport of curling is thought to be invented in Scotland is the passive in the present tense. It shows an action that happens regularly, or happens in the present.
However, since the sport of curling already exists, its invention has already happened. So, the perfect form of the passive is needed, to show that this is an action that has already happened: The sport of curling is thought to have been invented in Scotland.
I hope that helps.
Jonathan
LearnEnglish team
thanks
Hi Jonathan,
"People think the sport of curling was invented in Scotland. The sport of curling _____ invented in Scotland." why the answer "was thought to have been" is wrong? Is the grammatically incorrect?