Passive Voice

Mice are eaten by cats.

Although the passive voice is less common than the active voice, there are several good reasons to sometimes use the passive.

How do we make the passive?

The basic structure of a passive clause is very simple:

subject	+	auxiliary verb be	+	main verb past participle	+	by	+	agent
					optional

The auxiliary be is conjugated in all tenses. The main verb is always the past participle. The agent is the original "doer" of the action.

Look at some examples:

subject	auxiliary verb be	main verb past participle	by
I	am	employed	by	Apple.
You	will be	woken		at 6.
It	will have been	finished		by then.
We	have been	notified	by	Head Office.
You	are being	transferred		next week.
They	will be	paid.

Notice above↑:

• auxiliary be can be conjugated for all persons and tenses
• main verb is invariable: past participle
• if there is an agent (Apple, Head Office), it is introduced by by

Agentless passive

The subject of an active sentence "does" the action. In a passive sentence, we express the doer (or agent) through a by phrase (the long passive) or, very often, we remove it completely (the short passive). In the following example, the agent is "the Allies":

active		The Allies firebombed Dresden.
passive	long	Dresden was firebombed by the Allies.
	short	Dresden was firebombed.

The short passive is also known as the "agentless passive". Soon you will see how useful it can be.

Negatives and questions

The table below shows examples of the passive with negative sentences, question sentences and negative-question sentences:

		subject			auxiliary verb be		main verb past participle
-		You			are	not	paid	to watch YouTube.
		They	will	never	be		employed	by us.
?	Are	they					cleaned	regularly?
	Has	your wallet			been		stolen?
-?	Is	he				not	notified	immediately?
	Will	they		not	be		dismissed?
	Haven't	they			been		forgotten?

Notice above↑:

• position of auxiliary be or first auxiliary for questions
• possible positions of not, n't, never to create negation

Use of the passive

When and why do we use passive voice?

There are several times when the passive voice is useful, and usually the decision has to do with the "doer" (agent) or the "receiver" of the action. For example, we use the passive when:

1. we want to emphasize the receiver of the action:

• President Kennedy was killed by Lee Harvey Oswald.
  cf: Lee Harvey Oswald killed President Kennedy.

2. we don't know who did the action (the agent):

• My wallet has been stolen.
  cf: Somebody has stolen my wallet.

3. we think the agent is not important or interesting:

• Our house is being painted.
  cf: XYZ Company is painting our house.

4. the agent is obvious:

• I am paid weekly.
  cf: My company pays me weekly.

5. we are making general statements or announcements:

• Passengers are reminded to fasten their seatbelts.
  cf: The Captain reminds passengers to fasten their seatbelts.

6. the agent is everyone:

• The emergency services can be called by dialling 999.
  cf: The public can call the emergency services by dialling 999.

7. we are writing formal or scientific texts:

• Potassium was added and mixed in. The solution was heated to 80°C and then allowed to cool.
  cf: The technician added potassium and mixed it in. The technician heated the solution to 80°C and then allowed it to cool.

8. we want to avoid responsibility for our own actions (typically found in government reports):

• Mistakes were made and unfortunately never rectified.
  cf: The Prime Minister made mistakes and unfortunately never rectified them.

Look at this sentence:

• He was killed with a gun.

Normally we use by to introduce the agent. But the gun is not the original doer of the action. The gun did not kill him. He was killed by somebody with a gun. In the active voice, it would be: Somebody killed him with a gun. Somebody is the agent. The gun is the instrument.

The get-passive

Although we normally construct the passive with be + past participle, it is also possible (in informal language) to use get + past participle. So if France beat England at football, we could turn this to passive and say "England were beaten by France" (be-passive) or "England got beaten by France" (get-passive). And we might also add: "But France will get thrashed by Russia."

For formal English and exams you should use the be-passive, but in informal language people sometimes use the get-passive.

Forms of passive

The passive voice is not a tense itself. But for transitive verbs each tense, as well as other verb forms such as infinitives and participles, can be produced in the passive voice. Some of the more complicated tenses (mostly perfect continuous) are rarely used in the passive, but they are possible.

Here are some examples of the passive voice with many of the possible forms using the verb sing:

infinitive	to be sung
perfect infinitive	to have been sung
participle	sung
perfect participle	having been sung
gerund	being sung

	Simple	Continuous	Perfect
Present	am, are, is sung	am, are, is being sung	have, has been sung
Past	was, were sung	was, were being sung	had been sung
Future	will be sung	will be being sung	will have been sung