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
Dear admins, please comment this one. I totally agree with this point of view and will be grateful for your explanations!
Hi there,
I´m with you on this one. I believe we must make clear when that was said and if the creatures came out that single time or rather they do it as a habit. So I would say then: The creatures were said to have come out at night or The creatures are said to come out at night. Ï´d use the latter assuming that this event is already well-known by most people.
Hi, what is the difference between :
- The robbers are believed to have escaped through an air vent.
- The robbers are believed to have been escaped through an air vent.
It is only added [...been...] in the second sentence.
Hi D.imitar,
The first sentence is correct but the second one isn't. "Have been escaped" is the passive voice. But since the grammatical subject is "the robbers", the verb "escape" should be active, not passive (because the robbers are doing the action, not receiving it or being affected by it).
Does that make sense?
Jonathan
LearnEnglish team
Thank you,
but how that is connected with :
- The walls are believed to have been built in the third century BCE.
Is your answer mean that "have been built" is not passive ?
Hi D.imitar,
"Have been built" is the passive, that's correct. It is correct in the "walls" sentence because the meaning is that the walls have been built (by somebody). In other words, the action of building was done to the walls, by somebody.
However, in the original it doesn't make sense to say The robbers have been escaped (by somebody). The action of escaping was not done by somebody to the robbers. It was done by the robbers themselves.
I hope that helps to clarify it.
Jonathan
LearnEnglish team
Thank you!
PS : I cannot edit my previous post. Maybe you have to notify your software team for this.
Hi D.imitar,
No problem at all. Sorry, posts on here can't be edited after they are posted.
Jonathan
LearnEnglish team
Please, what is the difference between these passive structures:
"I remember being told to do it." versus "I remember having been told to do it."
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