What is the difference between active and passive voice?

In the active voice the subject does the action: The mechanic repaired the car. In the passive voice the receiver of the action becomes the subject and the verb takes be plus a past participle: The car was repaired (by the mechanic). The event is the same; what changes is which noun the sentence is about and whether the doer is mentioned.

How do you change a sentence from active to passive?

Take the object of the active verb and make it the subject, put be into the tense of the active verb, and add the past participle of the main verb. Then decide whether the original subject is worth keeping in a by-phrase. So Our neighbours are painting the fence becomes The fence is being painted (by our neighbours): fence moves to the front, are painting becomes is being painted, and the neighbours can stay or go.

Can every sentence be made passive?

No. Only verbs with an object can be made passive, so intransitive verbs like arrive, happen, sleep, and die have no passive form: The train arrived cannot be rearranged. A few transitive verbs that describe states rather than actions also resist it, including have (possess), lack, resemble, and fit: She resembles her mother has no natural passive.

When should I keep by and the doer?

Keep the by-phrase when the doer is new or important information: Hamlet was written by Shakespeare. The vaccine was developed by a team in Oxford. Drop it when the doer is unknown (My phone was stolen), obvious (The thief was arrested), or irrelevant (The road is being resurfaced). If you find yourself writing by someone or by people, the phrase should almost certainly go.

Which tenses are not used in the passive?

Every tense has a theoretical passive, but the perfect continuous forms and the future continuous produce clumsy strings like has been being repaired and will be being served, so speakers avoid them. Instead they switch to a simpler tense: The road has been under repair for weeks, or The road has been repaired several times. All the other tenses, plus modals and infinitives, take the passive freely.

English grammar · Intermediate

Active and Passive Voice: How to Convert Any Sentence, Tense by Tense

Written by Eleanor Whitfield, Lead English Curriculum Editor · Reviewed September 2026

Active and passive voice are two ways of arranging the same event. In the active voice the subject performs the action (The committee approved the plan); in the passive the receiver of the action becomes the subject, the verb takes a form of be plus a past participle, and the doer either follows by or disappears (The plan was approved). Every tense has a passive form, and converting between the two is a mechanical process once you know the steps.

The report was written by a junior analyst.

the object of the active sentence has become the subject

What it is

A sentence in the active voice follows the natural order of an event: the doer, then the action, then the thing affected (The chef cooked the meal). The passive voice reverses the spotlight. The thing affected moves to the front and becomes the grammatical subject, the verb gains a form of be that carries the tense, and the original doer is either introduced with by or left out (The meal was cooked by the chef; The meal was cooked). English has the passive so that a sentence can start with whatever is already the topic of the conversation, and so that an unknown or unimportant doer never has to be named.

Someone stole my bike last night. (active: the doer is vague and adds nothing) My bike was stolen last night. (passive: the bike is the topic; the doer is dropped)

How to spot it

A passive verb phrase always contains a form of be (am, is, are, was, were, be, been, being) followed directly by a past participle: is written, was taken, has been sold, will be announced. If you can add by someone after the verb and the sentence still makes sense, it is passive.

The bridge was built in 1932. (was + built: past simple passive, no doer named)
These phones are made in Vietnam. (are + made: present simple passive)
The results have been published. (have been + published: present perfect passive)
She was given a second chance. (the receiver of the giving is the subject)

Not every be + participle is a passive. In The door is closed, closed can describe a state (an adjective) rather than an action. The test is whether a doer is possible: The door was closed by the wind is passive; The shop is closed on Sundays is a description.

Active and Passive Voice Quick Reference

Turning an active sentence into a passive one, step by step

Step	What you do	Example: The team tested the prototype.
1. Find the object	Locate the noun receiving the action. Only a sentence with an object can go passive.	the prototype
2. Make it the subject	Move that noun to the front of the sentence.	The prototype ...
3. Add be in the active verb's tense	Tested is past simple, so be becomes was or were, agreeing with the new subject.	The prototype was ...
4. Add the past participle	The main verb takes its third form, whatever the tense.	The prototype was tested ...
5. Decide about the doer	Add by + doer if it is new or important information; otherwise leave it out.	The prototype was tested by the team.
6. Keep everything else	Time, place, and manner phrases stay where they were.	The prototype was tested by the team last week.

Common Active and Passive Voice Examples in English

Active and passive pairs, grouped by the kind of verb phrase you are converting, so you can see exactly which piece changes:

Simple and Continuous Tenses

They clean the office every night. The office is cleaned every night.: present simple: is + cleaned
The council closed the road. The road was closed.: past simple: was + closed; the doer is obvious, so it goes
Engineers are repairing the line. The line is being repaired.: present continuous: is being + repaired
The police were questioning a suspect. A suspect was being questioned.: past continuous: was being + questioned

In the continuous tenses be itself takes the -ing form: is being, was being. The participle at the end never changes.

Perfect Tenses

Someone has taken my seat. My seat has been taken.: present perfect: has been + taken
They had already sold the house. The house had already been sold.: past perfect: had been + sold; already keeps its place
We have not received the payment. The payment has not been received.: negative: not follows the first auxiliary
By Friday they will have finished the roof. By Friday the roof will have been finished.: future perfect: will have been + finished

Perfect passives stack three verbs (has been taken). Only the first one, have, changes for the subject: has been taken, have been taken.

Modals and the Future

You must return the forms by Monday. The forms must be returned by Monday.: modal + be + participle
They will announce the winner tonight. The winner will be announced tonight.: will be + announced
Someone is going to fix the heating. The heating is going to be fixed.: going to be + fixed
She should have told you. You should have been told.: perfect modal: should have been + told

After a modal, be stays in its base form for every subject: it must be, they must be, I must be.

Questions and Negatives

Did they invite you? Were you invited?: the passive question inverts be and the subject
Has anyone fed the cat? Has the cat been fed?: has moves in front of the new subject
Who painted this? Who was this painted by?: the wh-question keeps the doer as the question word
Nobody told me. I wasn't told.: nobody in the active becomes a negative verb in the passive

Because the passive always has an auxiliary (be), passive questions never need do, does, or did.

How the Conversion Works

Five moves turn any active sentence into its passive twin. Learn them in order and the tense table below becomes predictable rather than something to memorise.

The Object Becomes the Subject

The passive exists to promote the receiver of the action. Whatever was the direct object of the active verb moves to the front and takes over as the grammatical subject, so the verb must now agree with it: The student reads the books becomes The books are read, with are matching books. If the sentence has no object, there is nothing to promote and no passive is possible.

A stranger found the wallet. The wallet was found.

the wallet moves from object to subject; the verb agrees with it

Object out front, verb agrees with it.

Be Carries the Tense, the Participle Carries the Meaning

In the passive the main verb freezes as a past participle (found, taken, written) and gives up its tense. The tense moves onto be, which takes exactly the form the active verb had: present simple finds becomes is found, past simple found becomes was found, present perfect has found becomes has been found, and so on through every tense.

She is writing the report. The report is being written.

is writing was present continuous, so be becomes is being

Same tense, now on be.

The Doer Moves to a By-Phrase or Disappears

The old subject is no longer needed grammatically. Keep it with by when it is the point of the sentence (This portrait was painted by Vermeer) and drop it when it is unknown, obvious, or unimportant (My car was stolen; The suspect was arrested). In real texts most passives have no by-phrase at all; that is usually why the passive was chosen.

The novel was written by a teenager. The novel was written in 1954.

by keeps a surprising doer; the second sentence has no need for one

By for a doer worth naming; otherwise nothing.

Pronouns Change Case When They Change Role

A pronoun that was the object (me, him, her, us, them) becomes a subject and switches to subject form (I, he, she, we, they). A pronoun that was the subject and now follows by switches the other way. Learners who convert word by word often leave the pronouns in their old form.

They invited us. We were invited by them.

us becomes we; they becomes them

New job, new pronoun form.

Only Transitive Verbs Have a Passive

Verbs with no object (arrive, happen, die, sleep, exist) cannot be made passive because there is nothing to promote, and a few transitive verbs describing states rather than actions (have, lack, resemble, fit, suit, cost) resist it too. The accident was happened and This dress is suited by you are impossible.

The accident happened at noon. She has two brothers.

happen has no object; have describes a state: neither goes passive

No object, no passive.

Common Mistakes with Active and Passive Voice

Incorrect: The letter written by my grandmother.

Correct: The letter was written by my grandmother.

A passive needs a form of be to carry the tense. Without was, written is just a participle describing the letter and the sentence has no main verb.

Incorrect: The window was broke by the wind.

Correct: The window was broken by the wind.

The verb after be must be the past participle, not the past simple. For irregular verbs the two forms often differ (broke / broken, wrote / written, took / taken), and the passive always takes the third form.

Incorrect: The accident was happened at midnight.

Correct: The accident happened at midnight.

Happen has no object, so there is nothing to promote to subject and no passive is possible. Learners often add be to intransitive verbs (was died, was arrived) because the event feels like something that was done to someone.

Incorrect: This castle is built in the twelfth century.

Correct: This castle was built in the twelfth century.

The tense of be has to match the time of the action. Built is fixed as a participle whatever the tense, so the only place the past can show is on be: was built.

Active and Passive in Every Tense

One active sentence, She writes the report, converted through every tense and modal form. Read down the passive column and notice that written never changes: all the tense information sits on be.

The main tenses

Be takes the tense of the active verb; the participle stays fixed.

Pronoun	Active	Passive
present simple	She writes the report.	The report is written.
present continuous	She is writing the report.	The report is being written.
past simple	She wrote the report.	The report was written.
past continuous	She was writing the report.	The report was being written.
present perfect	She has written the report.	The report has been written.
past perfect	She had written the report.	The report had been written.
future with will	She will write the report.	The report will be written.
future with going to	She is going to write the report.	The report is going to be written.
future perfect	She will have written the report.	The report will have been written.

The perfect continuous tenses (has been writing) and the future continuous (will be writing) have passive forms in theory (has been being written, will be being written), but they are so awkward that speakers avoid them and choose a simpler tense instead.

Modals, infinitives, and -ing forms

Outside the tenses the same rule applies: be appears in whatever form the active verb had, and the participle follows.

Pronoun	Active	Passive
modal (can, must, should)	She must write the report.	The report must be written.
perfect modal	She should have written the report.	The report should have been written.
to-infinitive	Someone needs to write the report.	The report needs to be written.
perfect infinitive	She seems to have written the report.	The report seems to have been written.
-ing form	She hates people interrupting her.	She hates being interrupted.

These forms are covered in depth on the advanced passive page; here they simply show that the be + participle rule has no exceptions.

Conversions That Need Extra Care

Two sentence types follow the same rule but trip learners up because the object is not where they expect it.

Verbs with two objects

Give, send, offer, tell, show, and similar verbs have two objects, so they have two possible passives. English usually promotes the person, because the person is normally the topic.

They gave her the job. She was given the job.: the person promoted: the usual choice
They gave her the job. The job was given to her.: the thing promoted: to appears before the person
Someone sent me a letter. I was sent a letter.: me becomes I

Explain (explain something to someone) has only one object, so the person cannot be promoted: The rule was explained to us, never We were explained the rule.

Phrasal and prepositional verbs

The particle or preposition stays glued to the verb and comes straight after the participle, even though it ends up at the end of the sentence.

Her aunt looked after the children. The children were looked after by her aunt.: after stays with looked
Someone broke into the office. The office was broken into.: into ends the sentence
They put the meeting off. The meeting was put off.: off follows the participle

Ending a sentence with a preposition here is not just acceptable; it is the only grammatical option.

Quick Check: Active and Passive Voice

Rewrite each active sentence in the passive. Keep the tense, and drop the doer unless it is needed.

1. Active: They speak Portuguese in Brazil. Passive: Portuguese ___ in Brazil.

Answer: is spoken

present simple: is + spoken; they is dropped

2. Active: Somebody has stolen my bike. Passive: My bike ___.

Answer: has been stolen

present perfect: has been + stolen

3. Active: The chef is preparing the meal. Passive: The meal ___ by the chef.

Answer: is being prepared

present continuous: is being + prepared

4. Active: They will announce the results tomorrow. Passive: The results ___ tomorrow.

Answer: will be announced

will be + announced

5. Active: Did the storm damage the roof? Passive: ___ the roof ___ by the storm?

Answer: Was, damaged

past simple question: was moves in front of the new subject

6. Active: You must sign the form. Passive: The form ___.

Answer: must be signed

modal + be + participle

Active and Passive Voice FAQs

What is the difference between active and passive voice?: In the active voice the subject does the action: The mechanic repaired the car. In the passive voice the receiver of the action becomes the subject and the verb takes be plus a past participle: The car was repaired (by the mechanic). The event is the same; what changes is which noun the sentence is about and whether the doer is mentioned.
How do you change a sentence from active to passive?: Take the object of the active verb and make it the subject, put be into the tense of the active verb, and add the past participle of the main verb. Then decide whether the original subject is worth keeping in a by-phrase. So Our neighbours are painting the fence becomes The fence is being painted (by our neighbours): fence moves to the front, are painting becomes is being painted, and the neighbours can stay or go.
Can every sentence be made passive?: No. Only verbs with an object can be made passive, so intransitive verbs like arrive, happen, sleep, and die have no passive form: The train arrived cannot be rearranged. A few transitive verbs that describe states rather than actions also resist it, including have (possess), lack, resemble, and fit: She resembles her mother has no natural passive.
When should I keep by and the doer?: Keep the by-phrase when the doer is new or important information: Hamlet was written by Shakespeare. The vaccine was developed by a team in Oxford. Drop it when the doer is unknown (My phone was stolen), obvious (The thief was arrested), or irrelevant (The road is being resurfaced). If you find yourself writing by someone or by people, the phrase should almost certainly go.
Which tenses are not used in the passive?: Every tense has a theoretical passive, but the perfect continuous forms and the future continuous produce clumsy strings like has been being repaired and will be being served, so speakers avoid them. Instead they switch to a simpler tense: The road has been under repair for weeks, or The road has been repaired several times. All the other tenses, plus modals and infinitives, take the passive freely.