The passive voice

1. Form

A. The passive of an active tense is formed by putting the verb to be into the same tense as the active verb and adding the past participle of the active verb. The subject of the active verb becomes the ‘agent’ of the passive verb. The agent is very often not mentioned. When it is mentioned it is preceded by by and placed at the end of the clause:

My grandfather planted this tree.

This tree was planted by my grandfather.

B. Examples of present, past and perfect passive tenses (simple):

We clean the room every day. The room is cleaned every day.

They broke the window. The window was broken.

They have washed the car. The car has been washed.

2. Active Tenses and Their Passive Equivalents

Tense/Verb form Active voice Passive voice

Present Simple	keeps	is kept
Present continuous	is keeping	is being kept
Past Simple	kept	was kept
Past continuous	was keeping	was being kept
Present perfect	has kept	has been kept
Past perfect	had kept	had been kept
Future	will keep	will be kept
Conditional	would keep	would be kept
Present infinitive	to keep	to be kept

3. Get in the Passive

In colloquial speech get is sometimes used instead of be. We use get to emphasize action or change. We often use it for something happening by accident, unexpectedly or in an unplanned way:

The eggs got (=were) broken.

How did the painting get damaged?

But not The picture got painted several years ago.

We also use get in idiomatic expressions, e.g. get washed (=wash oneself), get dressed/changed, get engaged/married/divorced, get started (=start)

4. Questions in the passive

Questions about the identity of the subject of an active verb are usually expressed by an affirmative:

The traffic delayed me. What delayed you?

Our team won. Which team won?

Questions about the subject of a passive verb are also expressed by an affirmative:

Something was done. What was done?

One of the houses was sold. Which of them was sold?

Interrogative verbs in active questions about the object become affirmative verbs in passive questions:

Active What did they steal? (interrogative verb)

Passive What was stolen? (affirmative verb)

Conversely, affirmative verbs in active questions become interrogative verbs in passive questions:

Active Who wrote it? (affirmative verb)

Passive Who was it written by? (interrogative verb)

Other types of question require interrogative verbs in both active and passive:

Active When/Where/Why did he paint it?

Passive When/Where/Why was it painted?