Language: grammar and vocabulary
The passive in every tense
Form the passive in any tense, and with a modal verb or an imperative.
The passive is one pattern, not twelve: a form of be, plus the past participle. Everything that looks complicated about it is really just the tense of be. Get that right and the rest follows.
The pattern, tense by tense
Present: is cleaned. Present continuous: is being cleaned. Past: was cleaned. Past continuous: was being cleaned. Present perfect: has been cleaned. Past perfect: had been cleaned. Future: will be cleaned.
With a modal verb
A modal never changes its shape, so be stays plain: may be collected, could be mended, ought to be checked. There is no such thing as "must is submitted".
With a command
An order has no subject to move, so the passive borrows one: "Switch off the lights" becomes "Let the lights be switched off". This turns up in notices and instructions.
The passive has a bad name, and it deserves it when a writer uses it to hide behind. But it is exactly right when the doer is unknown, when the doer does not matter, or when the thing done to is what the reader cares about. A science report is full of passives for that last reason.
Worked example
Change to the passive: "The engineers are widening the road."
The object is "the road", so it moves to the front.
The object always becomes the new subject.
Try it together
Let us put one sentence into the passive three times over.
The active sentence is: The village repairs the well. Each answer is the passive verb only — the three words that fill the gap in "The well ____."
1.Start from the present perfect active: The village has repaired the well. Write the three words that fill the gap in: The well ____.
Have a go
Complete the passive with the three missing words: The hall ____ at the moment. (verb: paint)
Ready to practise?
Eight questions on what you have just read. Nothing is timed, and you can play as many times as you like.