The Passive Voice (Present and Past Simple)
Use the passive when you want to focus on the action or the thing receiving it instead of the person doing it. You form it with the right tense of 'to be' plus the past participle: in the present, "English is spoken in Canada"; in the past, "The car was repaired yesterday." Reach for the passive when the doer is unknown, obvious, or simply not important. Only add the doer with 'by' when it actually adds something useful, as in "This book was written by Orwell."
Examples
- English is spoken in Canada. people speak English there; doer unimportant
- The car was repaired yesterday. someone repaired it; focus on the car
- This book was written by Orwell. Orwell wrote it
The full lesson
Everything in the video, in text.
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Who broke the window? Sometimes you don't know — and sometimes you simply don't care. English has a whole structure for exactly that moment.
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Normally we say who does the action: an active sentence puts the doer first. But often the action — or the thing it happens to — is what really matters. That's the passive.
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The recipe is simple. Take the right form of the verb to be, then add the past participle. Be carries the tense; the participle names the action.
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Present simple first. We use am, is, or are plus the participle. Who exactly speaks it? Everyone — so we leave them out. English is spoken in Canada.
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It scales straight to plurals — just swap is for are. Notice the participle never changes. These cars are made in Germany.
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Now the past simple. The action's done, the doer is unknown — perfect for the passive. Use was or were plus the participle. The car was repaired yesterday.
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Same rule for plural subjects in the past — were plus the participle. The houses were built in 1900.
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So when should you reach for the passive? When the doer is unknown, obvious, or simply unimportant — which is why news, science, and processes lean on it constantly.
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But what if the doer does matter? Then add it back with the word by. Here Orwell is the point of the sentence, so we name him. This book was written by Orwell.
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Here's the number-one mistake: dropping to be. English spoken here is fine on a shop sign, but in a full sentence you need the verb. Without it, you don't have a passive — you have nothing.
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The other trap is overusing by. If nobody cares who did it, leave the doer out. By someone adds nothing — it just makes the sentence heavy.
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So, three things to remember. Form it with be plus the participle. Use it when the doer doesn't matter. And add by only when it does.