Learn about the Passive

 

Active or Passive?

Many verbs in English can be written in two ways: active or passive.

J. K. Rowlingwrote the first Harry Potter book in 1997. J.K Rowling is important, so we say her name first.

The first Harry Potter bookwas written in 1997. The book is important so we say the book first.

How to make passives

We make passives using be + past participle (the third form of the verb, e.g. done, gone, written ...). For example, with the verb "to make":

	Present Simple	Past Simple
Positive	It is made.	It was made.
Negative	It isn't made.	It wasn't made.
Question	Is it made?	Was it made?

When to use passives

My favourite film is The Ring. It was made in 1998.	The object is more important than the person/thing who did it.
My car was stolenlast month.	We don't know who did it.
Three robbers were arrested last night.	It's obvious (here, it can only be the police) or not important who did something.

Passives with "by"

Most of the time we don't need to say who did something when we use a passive. But, if you want to add who did the action you can use "by".

Romeo and Juliet was written by Shakespeare.

(The teacher was given some lovely chocolate by her students.)