Advanced passives review (Exercises and explanation)

Do you know how to use the different forms of the passive voice? Enhance your knowledge with a lesson given below and the grammar explanation to guide you better.

Check out these examples to see how the passive voice is used:

• The report was submitted this morning.

• New safety measures need to be implemented.

• The fire is thought to have been started by a malfunction.

Grammar explanation - Advanced passives review

We use the passive voice to shift the focus of the sentence.

• Elena Ruiz designed the website. (focus on Elena Ruiz)

• The website was designed by Elena Ruiz. (focus on The website)

We often use the passive:

• To start the sentence with the most important or logical information.

• When the doer of the action is unknown, obvious, or we don’t want to mention them.

• In more formal or scientific writing.

1. Be + past participle

The most common way to form the passive is subject + be + past participle.

• The new bridge was completed last week.

The person or thing doing the action is called the agent. Most of the time, the agent is not mentioned, but if it's important, we can include it using by.

• The new bridge was completed last week by the construction team.

We can also use the passive with modal verbs such as can, must, and should by using modal + be + past participle.

• A website can be built with basic coding skills.

• The incident must be reported immediately.

• New regulations should be introduced to improve safety.

2. The passive with get

In informal English, get is sometimes used instead of be to form the passive.

My phone got stolen at the park. (= My phone was stolen at the park.)

3. The impersonal passive

The impersonal passive is used with reporting verbs such as allege, believe, claim, consider, expect, report, say, think, etc. It conveys what an unspecified group of people say or believe.

The impersonal passive has two forms:

a) it + be + past participle + (that) + subject + verb:

• It is expected that the project will finish on time.

• It is said that the house is haunted.

• It is believed that the discovery could change history.

b) someone/something + be + past participle + infinitive:

• The project is expected to finish on time.

• The house is said to be haunted.

• The discovery is believed to have changed history.

Note that the infinitive can be simple (for present/future actions), perfect (for past actions), or continuous (for actions in progress).

• The project is expected to be completed by next year. (simple infinitive)

• The house is believed to have been built in the 1800s. (perfect infinitive)

• The discovery is reported to be causing a lot of debate. (continuous infinitive)

Try another grammar lesson