Use of Passive

Passive voice is used when the focus is on the action and the subject (who or what is
performing the action) is not important or not known.
Example: My bike was stolen.

Sometimes a statement in passive is more polite than active voice, as the following
example shows:
Example: A mistake was made.
Form of Passive
Subject + form of to be + Past Participle
Example: A letter was written.
When rewriting active sentences in passive voice, note the following:



the object of the active sentence becomes the subject of the passive sentence
form of the verb (be) is changed (to be + past participle)
the subject of the active sentence becomes the object of the passive sentence (or is
dropped)
Examples of Passive
Tense
Subject
Verb
Object
Active: Rita
Passive: A letter
Active: Rita
Simple Past
Passive: A letter
Active: Rita
Present Perfect
Passive: A letter
Active: Rita
Future I
Passive: A letter
Active: Rita
Models
Passive: A letter
writes
is written
wrote
was written
has written
has been written
will write
will be written
can write
can be written
a letter.
by Rita.
a letter.
by Rita.
a letter.
by Rita.
a letter.
by Rita.
a letter.
by Rita.
Tense
Verb
Object
Simple Present
Subject
Active: Rita
Passive: A letter
Active: Rita
Past Progressive
Passive: A letter
Active: Rita
Past Perfect
Passive: A letter
Present
Progressive
is writing
is being written
was writing
was being written
had written
had been written
a letter.
by Rita.
a letter.
by Rita.
a letter.
by Rita.