Passive sentences (2): tenses

B1-B1+
Grammar
Active and passive forms

Here is a summary of passive tenses. Note that we always use a past participle in a passive verb (e.g. directed, eaten). For more information on past participles, see the notes below:

Regular verbs: Past Simple and past participle

	INFINITIVE	PAST SIMPLE	PAST PARTICIPLE
With most verbs we add -ed:	happen	happened	happened
We verbs ending with -e, we add -d:	live	lived	lived
We verbs that end with a consonant + -y, we change the -y to -ied:	try study	tried studied	tried studied
With verbs that end with one vowel + one consonant, we double the consonant:	stop grab	stopped grabbed	stopped grabbed
We do not double the consonant, when it is a y or w (e.g. enjoy), when the last syllable is not stressed (e.g. disCOVer, LISten, HAppen):	enjoy allow discover listen	enjoyed allowed discovered listened	enjoyed allowed discovered listened
But note also that we double the l at the end of verbs when the syllable is not stressed (e.g. TRAvel):	cancel travel	cancelled travelled	cancelled travelled

Irregular verbs: Past Simple and past participle

INFINITIVE	PAST SIMPLE	PAST PARTICIPLE
be	was/were	been
beat	beat	beaten
become	became	become
begin	began	begun
break	broke	broken
bring	brought	brought
build	built	built
burn	burnt	burnt
buy	bought	bought
catch	caught	caught
choose	chose	chosen
come	came	come
cost	cost	cost
cut	cut	cut
do	did	done
draw	drew	drawn
drink	drank	drunk
drive	drove	driven
eat	ate	eaten
fall	fell	fallen
feel	felt	felt
find	found	found
fly	flew	flown
forget	forgot	forgotten
forbid	forbade	forbidden
get	got	got
give	gave	given
go	went	gone/been
grow	grew	grown
have	had	had
hear	heard	heard
hide	hid	hidden
hit	hit	hit
hold	held	held
hurt	hurt	hurt
keep	kept	kept
know	knew	known
learn	learnt/learned	learnt/learned
leave	left	left
lend	lent	lent
let	let	let
lose	lost	lost
make	made	made
meet	met	met
pay	paid	paid
put	put	put
read	read	read
ring	rang	rung
run	ran	run
say	said	said
see	saw	seen
sell	sold	sold
send	sent	sent
show	showed	shown/showed
shut	shut	shut
sing	sang	sung
sit	sat	sat
sleep	slept	slept
speak	spoke	spoken
spend	spent	spent
stand	stood	stood
steal	stole	stolen
sweep	swept	swept
swim	swam	swum
take	took	taken
teach	taught	taught
tell	told	told
think	thought	thought
throw	threw	thrown
understand	understood	understood
wake	woke	woken
wear	wore	worn
win	won	won
write	wrote	written

Present Simple
	verb (present)	+ participle
Active:	Someone makes* dinner.*
Passive:	Dinner is	*made*.

Past Simple
	verb (past)	+ participle
Active:	Someone made* dinner.*
Passive:	Dinner was	*made*.

Present Perfect
	have/has + participle	+ participle
Active	Someone has made* dinner.*
Passive:	Dinner has been	*made*.

Past Perfect
	had + participle	+ participle
Active:	Someone had made* dinner.*
Passive:	Dinner had been	*made*.

Present Continuous
	am/is/are + –ing	+ participle
Active:	Someone is making* dinner.*
Passive:	Dinner is being	*made*.

Past Continuous
	was/were + –ing	+ participle
Active:	Someone was making* dinner.*
Passive:	Dinner was being	*made*.

will, can, must, etc.
	will etc. + infinitive	+ participle
Active:	Someone will make* dinner.*
Passive:	Dinner will be	*made*.

In all passive sentences, the first verb (= auxiliary verb) is singular if the subject is singular, and plural if the subject is plural:

The bedroom	is	being cleaned.
The bedrooms	*are*	being cleaned.

We also use the auxiliary verb to make questions and negatives:

Has the bin been emptied?
The floors hadn’t been cleaned.

PRACTICE

Now it is time to practise what you have learned.

For each Practice Test, read the instructions carefully.
Complete the exercise and press 'Check' to get your results.

Practice Test A

Practice Test B

Practice Test C

Practice Test D

Practice Test E

Nigel Bailey

Nigel is a qualified Teacher of English as a Foreign Language and has been teaching in Poland since 2003. He has been teaching over the Internet since 2008 and has taught more than 1,000 students in this way.

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