How to change active to passive
Only a sentence with an object can become passive, because that object becomes the new subject. Follow three steps with "The students wrote the report."
Step 1: move the object to the front: "The report". Step 2: use be in the tense of the original verb, plus the past participle: "was written". Step 3: add by and the doer only if it matters: "by the students".
Verbs without an object, such as arrive, sleep and happen, have no passive. You can't say "The accident was happened." The correct sentence is "The accident happened."
Active and passive voice chart
The main verb stays as a past participle in every passive form. Only be changes with the tense.
| Tense | Active | Passive |
|---|---|---|
| Present simple | She writes the letter. | The letter is written by her. |
| Present continuous | She is writing the letter. | The letter is being written by her. |
| Present perfect | She has written the letter. | The letter has been written by her. |
| Past simple | She wrote the letter. | The letter was written by her. |
| Past continuous | She was writing the letter. | The letter was being written by her. |
| Past perfect | She had written the letter. | The letter had been written by her. |
| Future with will | She will write the letter. | The letter will be written by her. |
| Modal verb | She must write the letter. | The letter must be written by her. |
When to use the passive
Use the active voice by default, because it is usually shorter and clearer. Choose the passive when the doer is unknown ("My bike was stolen"), obvious ("He was arrested") or less important than the result ("The bridge was completed in 1932").
The passive is also common in scientific and formal writing, where the process matters more than the person: "The samples were heated to 80 degrees."
Common mistakes
Wrong: The report was wrote yesterday.
Right: The report was written yesterday.
The passive needs the past participle, not the past simple.
Wrong: The email sent to all staff.
Right: The email was sent to all staff.
The passive needs a form of be before the participle.
Wrong: The meeting was happened on Monday.
Right: The meeting happened on Monday.
Happen has no object, so it has no passive.
Using this in IELTS and PTE
In IELTS Writing Task 1, the passive is the natural choice for describing a process diagram: "The leaves are picked, then they are dried." In PTE Describe Image and Write Essay, it helps you vary sentences, but overuse can make your writing harder to follow, so keep active sentences as your base.
5 questions
Exercise
Try each one, then open it to check your answer.
1. Make this passive: "They clean the rooms every day."
The rooms are cleaned every day.
Present simple passive: is or are plus the past participle. The doer isn't needed.
2. Make this passive: "The company has hired ten engineers."
Ten engineers have been hired by the company.
Present perfect passive: has or have been plus the past participle.
3. Make this active: "The window was broken by a ball."
A ball broke the window.
The doer after by becomes the subject.
4. Make this passive: "Someone is repairing the road."
The road is being repaired.
Present continuous passive uses being. The vague doer is dropped.
5. Can "The baby slept" become passive?
No.
Sleep has no object here, so there is nothing to become the subject.
Frequently asked questions
Is the passive voice wrong?+
No. It is correct grammar. It only becomes a problem when it hides who did something or makes a sentence longer than it needs to be.
Do I always need by in a passive sentence?+
No. Most passive sentences leave it out. Add by only when the doer is useful information.
Can a sentence with two objects be passive?+
Yes. "They gave me a prize" can become "I was given a prize" or "A prize was given to me." The first is more common.
Keep going
More grammar lessons
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