Certified English teacher and language coach

A passive voice can be found in many languages. Here, we will discuss the passive voice in English. Let’s take a look at its structure and usage.

What happens in “the passive”?

Active and passive

In English there are two grammatical voices: active and passive.

Active:   They will eat the cake.

Passive: The cake will be eaten (by them).

What happens here is:

1. The object (“the cake”) of the active sentence becomes the subject of the passive one. It means that it comes first in the sentence.
2. Right after this new subject we have “be” in the correct tense and form (here: “will be”).
3. The original verb of the active sentence (“eat”) is always in the third form (“eaten”) here.
4. Optional: if the original subject of the active sentence (here: “they”) is important or needs to be emphasised, it’s added with the preposition “by” (here: “by them”).

Note #1: Passive sentences can only be formed with transitive verbs. That means verbs that take objects (e.g.: eat something, build sth, write sth, publish sth, etc.).

Note #2: Its active counterpart must have an object (He wrote a book. / They will eat the cake.). Because that object will be the subject of the passive sentence (A book was written. / The cake will be eaten.).

Note #3: And finally, there is always a “be” in some form in a passive sentence.

And a little test to practise: