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The passive: present and past simple
B1 B1 grammar · lesson 8 of 23
The passive helps us talk about actions when the person who does them is unknown or not important. You will see it often in news, instructions and descriptions of processes.
Active and passive
In an active sentence, the subject does the action. In a passive sentence, the subject receives the action.
Active: Workers build these cars in Germany.
Passive: These cars are built in Germany.
Form: be + past participle
| Tense | Positive | Negative | Question |
|---|---|---|---|
| Present simple | It is made. They are made. | It isn’t made. | Is it made? |
| Past simple | It was made. They were made. | They weren’t made. | Were they made? |
Only the verb be changes for tense and person. The past participle stays the same: made, built, written, cleaned. Regular verbs add -ed (cleaned, opened). Irregular verbs have their own form, so learn them: do → done, see → seen, give → given, steal → stolen.
When do we use the passive?
- When we don’t know who did the action: My bike was stolen.
- When it is obvious or not important who did it: The streets are cleaned every morning.
- When the action or the object is more interesting than the person: This bridge was opened in 1890.
English is spoken in many countries.
The museum was built in the 19th century.
Our rooms are cleaned every day.
The windows weren’t closed, so the rain came in.
Where was this photo taken?
The book was written by a young teacher from Kenya.
Using by
If we want to say who did the action, we use by. But in most passive sentences we don’t use by at all, because the person is unknown or not important.
Common mistakes
✗ The letter was wrote yesterday.
✓ The letter was written yesterday.
✗ English speaks in many countries.
✓ English is spoken in many countries.
✗ The cars was made in Japan.
✓ The cars were made in Japan.
✗ This house built in 1950.
✓ This house was built in 1950.