How to make the Passive in English
We make the passive by putting the verb 'to be' into whatever tense we need and then adding the past participle. For regular verbs, we make the past participle by adding 'ed' to the infinitive. So play becomes played.
How to form passive forms of verbs?
| Tense | Active | Passive |
|---|---|---|
| Present Tense | go, goes | is gone (Singular) are gone (Plural) |
| Past Tense | went | was went (Singular) were went (Plural) |
| Future Tense | will / can / may / must => go | will / can etc. => be gone |
| Present Continuous Tense | am going is going | is being going (Singular) are being going (Plural) |
| Past Continuous Tense | are going was going were eating | was being gone (Singular) were being gone (Plural) |
| Future Continuous Tense | will be going shall be going | No Passive Voice |
| Present Perfect Tense | have gone had gone | have been gone (Plural) has been gone (Singular) |
| Past Perfect Tense | had gone | had been gone |
| Future Perfect Tense | shall have gone will have gone | will have been gone |
| Present Perfect Continuous Tense | has been going have been going | No Passive Voice |
| Past Perfect Continuous Tense | had been going | No Passive Voice |
| Future Perfect Continuous Tense | shall have been going will have been going | No Passive Voice |
Example sentences:
Active: I keep the butter in the fridge.
Passive: The butter is kept in the fridge.
Active: They stole the painting.
Passive: The painting was stolen.
Active: They are repairing the road.
Passive: The road is being repaired.
Active: Shakespeare wrote Hamlet.
Passive: Hamlet was written by Shakespeare
Active: A dog bit him.
Passive: He was bitten by a dog.