Passive voice basics
规则
The passive voice moves focus from who performs the action to whatever receives the action or is produced by it.
The Passive Voice is used when the focus of the utterance is placed on the action itself, the product, or the recipient of the action, rather than on the agent who performed it. Active sentences emphasize the doer ("Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin in 1928"). Passive sentences emphasize the result or receiver ("Penicillin was discovered in 1928"). Why use the passive? (1) The agent is unknown ("My bicycle was stolen last night"). (2) The agent is obvious or unimportant ("The criminal was arrested", "The road was repaired"). (3) The focus is academic, journalistic, or official ("The new community library was opened yesterday"). Formation Matrix across Tenses: The passive is formed with the appropriate tense of the auxiliary verb BE followed by the PAST PARTICIPLE of the main verb: (1) Present Simple Passive: am / is / are + past participle ("Millions of packages are delivered daily"). (2) Past Simple Passive: was / were + past participle ("The historical bridge was built in 1890"). (3) Present Continuous Passive: am / is / are being + past participle ("The highway is being resurfaced this week"). (4) Present Perfect Passive: have / has been + past participle ("The project has been approved"). (5) Modal Passive: modal + be + past participle ("The application must be signed"). By-Agent Phrase: Mention the agent with by only when it adds meaningful, necessary information: "The novel was written by Charles Dickens."
记住
- Form it with the appropriate tense of be and the past participle: the report was written yesterday.
- Use by to name the agent only when the person or cause is important: painted by Leonardo da Vinci.
- Only transitive verbs that take a direct object in the active voice can be transformed into the passive.
需要避开的常见陷阱
Intransitive verbs like happen, arrive, and sleep cannot be made passive: say an accident happened, never was happened.
Guía visual
How to read this B1 topic
At B1, grammar links ideas: condition, result, reported meaning, experience, and narrative order.
1. Name the relationship
Ask whether the sentence gives a condition, contrast, cause, report, or result.
If it rains, we will stay home.
2. Separate time from aspect
Finished event, visible result, duration, and background action use different forms.
I had left before she arrived.
3. Test both clauses
In complex sentences, the second half often proves the first half.
I wish I knew.
Passive voice
Use be + past participle when the receiver of the action is more important than the doer.
| Tense | Active | Passive |
|---|---|---|
| present simple | They clean the room. | The room is cleaned. |
| past simple | They cleaned the room. | The room was cleaned. |
| present perfect | They have cleaned the room. | The room has been cleaned. |
| modal | They must clean the room. | The room must be cleaned. |
Contrasts that often decide the answer
Event or background
Simple forms move events forward; continuous forms show an action in progress.
I left while she was talking.
Fact or stance
Modals, hedges, and reporting structures show how certain or responsible the speaker sounds.
This may indicate a problem.
Clause or compressed phrase
Advanced writing often compresses full clauses into participle, noun, or prepositional phrases.
Having reviewed the data, we revised the plan.
例句
- 1Penicillin was discovered by Sir Alexander Fleming in the early twentieth century.
- 2English is spoken as an official international language in dozens of countries.
- 3The damaged railway line is being repaired by specialized engineering teams.
- 4Our school website was designed by two talented former graduate students.
- 5Over three thousand new trees were planted across the municipal parks this spring.
- 6The missing leather wallet was found by a conscientious park cleaner on the grass.
- 7Fresh sourdough bread is baked in the neighborhood bakery early every morning.
- 8The annual financial report has already been reviewed by the senior accountant.
- 9Important administrative documents must be signed before the Friday deadline.
- 10The grand stone cathedral was completely restored after several years of work.
例外
Prepositional and Phrasal Verbs in the Passive: When a verb with a dependent preposition is turned into the passive, the preposition must remain immediately attached to the participle: Active: "They looked after the children well." → Passive: "The children were well looked after." Active: "Nobody spoke about the problem." → Passive: "The problem was not spoken about." Intransitive Verbs: Verbs like happen, arrive, die, and fall cannot take a passive form because they lack a direct object in the active voice.
常见错误
(1) Omitting the auxiliary verb be: "The historical bridge built in 1905." → "The historical bridge was built in 1905." (The passive strictly requires be). (2) Using base verb instead of participle: "Spanish is speak here." → "Spanish is spoken here." (The main verb must be in past participle). (3) Passive with intransitive verbs: "An accident was occurred yesterday." → "An accident occurred yesterday." (Occur is intransitive).
自我检测
Take four active workplace sentences and transform each into the passive voice using was or were, then practise.
相关语法主题
继续学习该级别的其他核心语法知识点。