How do you form the passive in English?
Form the passive with a form of be plus a past participle. Is/are mark present time, was/were mark past time, and a by-agent appears only when informative.
- Present passive: is/are + past participle.
- Past passive: was/were + past participle.
- Typical uses: processes, formal notices, and an unknown or unimportant doer.
B1 · Passive · 11 minPresent and past passive — the auxiliary carries the tense.
This B1 lesson shows the shared pattern behind present and past passive. Form processes and completed events, decide whether a by-agent matters, and avoid common German transfer errors — free to try, with no signup.
- CEFR levelB1 · Intermediate
- Time to completeAbout 11 minutes
- Form testbe plus participle
- Blocks10 blocks
01 / 07
How do you form the passive in English?
Form the passive in English with a form of be plus a past participle, with be carrying tense and number. In "The invoice is checked," is marks present time and singular number; checked is the participle. In "The invoices were checked," were marks past time and plural number while checked remains. This division makes the pattern manageable: change be when changing tense or number, and put the main verb into its past participle. Both parts are necessary. "Our products manufactured in Germany" loses the auxiliary, while "The invoice was write yesterday" loses the participle form. Check every passive with two questions: is there a fitting form of be, and does the correct past participle follow it?
02 / 07
What is the difference between present and past passive?
The difference between present and past passive sits in the form of be: is/are describes present processes or facts, while was/were describes completed events. Compare "Invoices are checked before payment" with "The order was shipped on Monday." The first sentence explains a regular procedure; the second records one completed shipment. Plural subjects take are in the present and were in the past, while singular subjects take is or was. The past participle remains part of both patterns. A time expression such as on Monday supports past meaning, while every day supports a present process. Choose present or past first, make be agree with the subject, and then add the participle.
03 / 07
When do you use the passive in English?
Use the passive when the process or result matters more than the person acting, when the doer is unknown or unimportant, or when a formal notice foregrounds the procedure. "Invoices are checked before payment" explains a process without an unnecessary person. "The window was broken last night" reports an event although the doer is unknown. "The order was shipped on Monday" also puts the result and time ahead of whoever performed the shipment. The passive is therefore not merely formal decoration; it is a choice of focus. If the person acting is the central new information, an active sentence can be clearer. If the process, affected thing, or result should lead, the passive fits.
04 / 07
When do you need a by-agent in the passive?
Use a by-agent only when its identity adds useful information; omit it when the doer is unknown, obvious, or unimportant. In "Every invoice is checked by our finance team," by our finance team identifies the responsible group and can therefore be useful. In "The order was shipped on Monday," the completed shipment matters rather than the person at the packing desk. In formal notices and general processes, an obvious agent can also burden the sentence without helping. After writing, ask whether the reader learns something relevant from the by-phrase. If the answer is yes, keep it. If the sentence carries the same important message without it, omit it and let the process or result remain central.
05 / 07
Which verbs cannot form a passive?
Intransitive verbs cannot form a passive because there is no object available to become the passive subject. This boundary explains an important contrast with German. The direct transfer "Here is spoken English" follows the German pattern, but it is not the fitting English structure. The natural sentence is "English is spoken here." English becomes the passive subject, and is spoken supplies the complete form. Before building a passive, check whether the active action has an affected object at all. Without such an object, the English structure cannot simply be passivised. Reframe the sentence so that a suitable subject is present, as the corrected example does with English.
06 / 07
Which German transfer errors affect the English passive?
The main English passive errors are a missing auxiliary, a base verb instead of a participle, and direct transfer of a German impersonal passive. German werden-passive with a participle at the end can encourage learners to lose one English component. Correct "The invoice was write yesterday" to "The invoice was written yesterday" and "Our products manufactured in Germany" to "Our products are manufactured in Germany." With "Here is spoken English," adding a form is not enough; restructure it as "English is spoken here." During checking, say the formula aloud: a fitting form of be, then a past participle. Also confirm that an affected object is available as the passive subject.
07 / 07
How do you use present and past passive at work?
At work, use present passive for recurring procedures and past passive for completed steps or checks. A process description can say "Invoices are checked before payment." This keeps the procedure central. A shipping update says "The order was shipped on Monday" because the specific step is complete. For a completed review, use "Last year's accounts were audited." If external responsibility is important, add "by an external firm." In every case, check tense and number on the auxiliary and the participle form on the main verb. That keeps process documentation, formal notices, and status updates concise and clear. A current standard takes is/are; a completed milestone takes was/were.