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Uses
Uses
The passive voice is most commonly used for academic – especially scientific – writings, in encyclopedias (such as Wikipedia), and in newspaper articles.
It is also used in normal speech and writing where it isn’t important who did the action.
How to Create the Passive Voice
How to Create the Passive Voice
The active voice is the one we most in English. It’s the one where the subject is one doing the action, the verb is the action, and the object is the one receiving the action. See more here.
The make the active voice into the passive voice, just swap the subject and the object. For example:
SamS drivesV a motorbikeO. [Active]
The motorbikeS wasV driven by SamO. [Passive]
Now, the motorbike is the subject. In the passive, since the subject isn’t doing any action, the main verb will always be to be. Because the subject is never the one doing the action talked about in the sentence, this is why it’s called the “passive.”
Because the main verb in the passive voice will always be to be, you must know all the forms of the verb. See them here.
The old, active verb from the active sentence is changed into a non-verb with verb form. See more about them here.
In the same example,
SamS drivesV a motorbikeO. [Active]
The motorbikeS wasV driven by SamO. [Passive]
the verb drives is changed to the non-verb, past participle, driven. Driven is actually an adjective.
This will look slightly different depending on the tense and aspect of the clause, but the idea is the same. Before we look at more examples, notice how because the person who did the action is now in a prepositional phrase, including them is optional.
SamS drivesV a motorbikeO. [Active]
The motorbikeS wasV driven by SamO. [Passive] ✔
The motorbikeS wasV driven. [Passive] ✔
Now, let’s look at examples from each tense and aspect.
Bold = Subject
Italics = Verb
Underline = Object
Present – Simple
He drives the car. [Active]
The car is driven (by him). [Passive]
Present – Perfect
He has driven the car. [Active]
The car has been driven (by him). [Passive]
Present – Progressive
He is driving the car. [Active]
The car is being driven (by him). [Passive]
NOTE: You cannot use the Perfect-Progressive aspect in the passive voice.
Present – Perfect-Progressive
He has been driving the car. [Active]
The car has been being driven (by him). [Passive]
If you want to know why you can’t use the Perfect-Progressive aspect in the passive voice, click here.
Now, let’s move to the past tense examples.
Past – Simple
He drove the car. [Active]
The car was driven (by him). [Passive]
Past – Perfect
He had driven the car. [Active]
The car had been driven (by him). [Passive]
Past – Progressive
He was driving the car. [Active]
The car was being driven (by him). [Passive]
And finally, the future:
Future – Simple
He will drive the car. [Active]
The car will be driven (by him). [Passive]
Future – Perfect
He will have driven the car. [Active]
The car will have been driven (by him). [Passive]
NOTE: You cannot use passive voice in the Progressive aspect of the future tense for the same reasons you can’t use it in the Perfect-Progressive aspect.
Future – Progressive
He will be driving the car. [Active]
The car will be being driven (by him). [Passive]
Now, the rest of the modal verbs:
Can - Simple
He can drive the car. [Active]
The car can be driven (by him). [Passive]
Could - Simple
He could drive the car. [Active]
The car could be driven (by him). [Passive]
May - Simple
He may drive the car. [Active]
The car may be driven (by him). [Passive]
Might - Simple
He might drive the car. [Active]
The car might be driven (by him). [Passive]
Must - Simple
He must drive the car. [Active]
The car must be driven (by him). [Passive]
Should - Simple
He should drive the car. [Active]
The car should be driven (by him). [Passive]
Would - Simple
He would drive the car. [Active]
The car would be driven (by him). [Passive]
As you can see, they follow the same formula with every modal. Now, let's look at the perfect aspect:
Could - Perfect
He could have driven the car. [Active]
The car could have been driven (by him). [Passive]
May - Perfect
He may have driven the car. [Active]
The car may have been driven (by him). [Passive]
Might - Perfect
He might have driven the car. [Active]
The car might have been driven (by him). [Passive]
Must - Perfect
He must have driven the car. [Active]
The car must have been driven (by him). [Passive]
Should - Perfect
He should have driven the car. [Active]
The car should have been driven (by him). [Passive]
Would - Perfect
He would have driven the car. [Active]
The car would have been driven (by him). [Passive]
Again, they follow the same formula with every modal, but some modals can't be used in the perfect aspect.
Remember, just like with will be being, modals can't be used in the progressive or perfect-progressive aspect, so this is the end.
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