Grammar: The Passive Voice (Present and Past Simple) – English – 3rd Year Middle School – Algeria

The Passive Voice: Present Simple and Past Simple

The passive voice is used when we want to focus on the action or the object that receives the action, rather than the person who does it.

Formation of the Passive Voice

The passive voice is formed with: Subject + be (conjugated) + past participle.

Present Simple Passive: am/is/are + past participle.
– The lesson is explained by the teacher.
– English is spoken all over the world.
– These books are sold in the library.

Past Simple Passive: was/were + past participle.
– The window was broken by the boy.
– The letters were sent yesterday.
– The house was built in 1990.

When to use the Passive Voice

• When the agent (doer) is unknown: My bike was stolen. (We don’t know who stole it)
• When the agent is obvious: The criminal was arrested. (It’s obvious the police did it)
• When we want to emphasize the action or the receiver: The injured man was taken to the hospital.
• In scientific and formal writing: The experiment was conducted in the laboratory.

Active to Passive Transformation

Active: Shakespeare wrote Hamlet.
Passive: Hamlet was written by Shakespeare.

Active: The students clean the classroom every day.
Passive: The classroom is cleaned by the students every day.

Exercises

Change these sentences from active to passive:

1. The chef cooks the meal. → The meal ________.
2. The children broke the vase. → The vase ________.
3. The teacher explains the lesson. → The lesson ________.
4. Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone. → The telephone ________.

Learn more with Modal Verbs and The Present Perfect Tense.