What is the passive voice?

The passive voice in English grammar allows us to make the recipient of

the action the focus of the sentence; the person or thing performing the
action is unknown, unimportant or obvious. The passive is formed as
follows: form of be + past participle.
Learn the difference between the active and passive voice with Lingolia,
then put your knowledge to the test in the exercises.
Example

My bike was stolen last night.

The cellar in our building was broken into and several bikes were taken.
I called the police earlier, but they had already been informed by my
neighbour.
An investigation is being conducted, but the thief has not been arrested yet.
Any information should be reported to the police.

When to use the passive in English grammar

Active sentences usually follow the subject-verb-object word order and

focus on the person or thing performing the action.
Example:
A criminal stole my bike.
In contrast, the passive voice focuses on the action itself. Passive
sentences tell us what happens to the recipient of the action.
Example:
My bike was stolen.
We use the passive when the person or thing performing the action (known
as the agent) is unknown, unimportant or obvious.
Examples:
 My bike was stolen. → unknown agent
An investigation is being conducted. → obvious agent (the police)
A mistake has been made. → avoids naming the agent
Any information should be reported to the police. → people in general
If we want to include the agent of a passive sentence, we use
the preposition by.
Example:
My bike was stolen by a criminal.
They had already been informed by my neighbour.

How to form the passive in English grammar

Passive sentences are formed as follows: form of be + past participle of the

main verb.
Only the form of the verb be changes depending on the tense that we are
using; the past participle remains the same in every tense.
The table below provides an overview of the passive voice in all of the
English tenses.
Tense Example
Simple Present The thief is arrested.
Present Progressive The thief is being arrested.
Present Perfect The thief has been arrested.
Simple Past The thief was arrested.
Past Progressive The thief was being arrested.
Past Perfect The thief had been arrested.
Will Future The thief will be arrested.
Future with going The thief is going to be arrested.
to
Future Perfect The thief will have been arrested.
 Infinitive The thief should be arrested.
The thief would be arrested.
The thief should have been arrested.
Perfect Infinitive
The thief would have been arrested.
Info

The present perfect progressive and the past perfect progressive do not
exist in the passive. Instead, we use the simple forms (present perfect
simple and past perfect simple).
How to change a sentence from active to passive
When transforming a sentence from active to passive, we can take a step-
by-step approach.
 Step 1: identify the object of the sentence and bring it to the front
active:
Someone stole my bike.
passive:
My bike …
 Step 2: identify the tense and conjugate the verb be accordingly
active:
Someone stole my bike. = simple past
passive:
My bike was …
 Step 3: find the past participle of the main verb
active:
Someone stole my bike. → steal – stole – stolen
passive:
My bike was stolen.
 Step 4: decide if you need to include the agent
active:
Someone stole my bike. → Who stole the bike? We don’t know.
The agent is unknown and therefore unnecessary in this case.
 Step 5: if the agent is important, we introduce it using
the preposition by.
 active:
A cyclist caused the crash.
passive:
The crash was caused by a cyclist.
This sentence does not make sense without the agent.

Note

Because the direct object of the active sentence becomes the subject of
the passive sentence, we can only use transitive verbs in the passive voice
(e.g., steal a car, write a book, make a mistake …). Intransitive verbs do not
take a direct object (e.g., arrive, die, go …) so cannot be used in the
passive.
Table of English Tenses in Active and Passive
Check out the table below to learn how to change active sentences into the
passive voice in every tense.
Tense Active Passive
Simple Present Someone steals my bike. My bike is stolen.
Someone is stealing my bike. My bike is being
Present Progressive
stolen.
Someone has stolen my bike. My bike has been
Present Perfect
stolen.
Simple Past Someone stole my bike. My bike was stolen.
Someone was stealing my bike. My bike was being
Past Progressive
stolen.
Someone had stolen my bike. My bike had been
Past Perfect
stolen.
Someone will steal my bike. My bike will be
Will Future
stolen.
Future with going to Someone is going to steal my bike. My bike is going to
 be stolen.
Someone will have stolen my bike. My bike will have
Future Perfect
been stolen.
Someone would steal my bike. My bike would be
Someone can steal my bike. stolen.
Infinitive
My bike can be
stolen.
Someone would have stolen my bike. My bike would have
Someone might have stolen my bike. been stolen.
Perfect infinitive
My bike might have
been stolen.

The passive in sentences with two objects

Certain verbs like ask, give, offer, pay, send, show etc. are used with two
objects. Usually, one is a person (indirect object) and the other is a thing
(direct object).
In the active voice, these sentences can be expressed in two different
ways:
Example:
Someone gave Josie this calendar.
Someone gave this calendar to Josie.
indirect object (IO): Josie; direct object (DO): this calendar
This is the same in the passive voice; either object can become
the subject of the passive sentence.

Example:
Josie was given this calendar.
indirect object (Josie) → subject (Josie)
This calendar was given to Josie.
direct object (this calendar) → subject (this calendar)

Changing object pronouns to subject pronouns

When the indirect object of an active sentence is an object pronoun (me,
you, him, her …), we must change it to a subject pronoun in the passive
voice.
Object Subject
Active Voice Passive Voice
Pronoun Pronoun
They told me about the I was told about the
me I
crime. crime.
They told you about the You were told about
you you
crime. the crime.
They told her about the She was told about the
her she
crime. crime.
They told him about the He was told about the
him he
crime. crime.
They reported it to the It was reported to the
it it
police. police.
They told us about the We were told about
us we
crime. the crime.
They told them about the They were told about
them they
crime. the crime.

Personal & Impersonal Passive

In formal situations such as news reports or academic articles, we use

reporting verbs and verbs of speech and thought in the passive voice to
express information in a neutral, unbiased way.
Common verbs: agree, announce, assume, believe, claim, consider,
declare, expect, feel, find, know, mention, say, suppose,
think, and understand.
Such sentences can start with it (impersonal passive) or with
the subject (personal passive).

Example:
 It is said that this area has a high crime rate. (impersonal passive)
This area is said to have a high crime rate. (personal passive)
= They say that this area has a high crime rate.
Impersonal Passive

Sentences in the impersonal passive begin with it: it is said/believed/agreed

etc. + that + clause.
Examples:
It is believed that the suspect has blonde hair.
It is said that the neighbourhood is a hotspot for crime.
It is assumed that the thief is local to the area.
Note: in the impersonal form, only the reporting verb is formed in the
passive voice; the rest of the sentence stays the same
.Personal Passive
Sentences in the personal passive begin with the subject and contain
an infinitive clause: subject + is said/believed/thought etc. + to + infinitive.
Examples:
The suspect is believed to have blonde hair.
The neighbourhood is said to be a hotspot for crime.
The thief is assumed to be local to the area.
We use the perfect infinitive (have + past participle) after the reporting verb
to refer to the past.
Example:
The theft is believed to have occurred at midnight last night.
The thief is said to have acted alone.

have/get something done

We can also form the passive with have/get + object + past
participle. (Note: get is more informal than have).
We use this form when someone else does something for us, particularly in
the context of paid services.

Active:
I do my hair.
I do this myself
Passive:
I have/get my hair done.
I pay someone else to do this for me
Like with a standard passive, the agent of the action is unknown or
unimportant; the focus is on the action itself.
Example:
Tom has/gets his car cleaned at the garage.
If we want to include the agent, we use by.
Example:
He had his suit made by a tailor.
We can use this structure in every tense:
Examples:
I’m getting my hair done tomorrow. (present progressive)
We had our kitchen renovated last year. (simple past)
They’ve had the dishwasher repaired several times. (present perfect
simple)

This passive structure is a type of causative.

You can learn more on our page all about causative structures
with have and get.
Passive with have
In addition to services, the passive with have has an extra meaning.
We use have + object + past participle to express an experience that
was negative, painful or unpleasant.
Examples:
I had my bike stolen last week.
He had his wisdom tooth taken out.
we can’t use get in these examples