Advanced passives review

Do you know how to use all the different forms of the passive? 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.

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: C1: Advanced passives: 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.