The passive voice – all tenses

The passive voice – all tenses

Exercise 1

Choose the correct passive voice forms for each gap below.

1 The new chemical had being testedwas being testedwas testing when it exploded.

2 How could you insult the manager? You might havemight have beenmight have being fired.

3 She has being informedhas been informedhad been inform of everything.

4 When I opened the cupboard, I saw that all the cookies had been eatenhad eatenwere eaten

5 You wouldn't allowwouldn't have allowedwouldn't be allowed to be so late if you worked for me.

6 After sending offbe sending offbeing sent off he insulted the referee.

7 A new restaurant is going to been openedwill being openedis going to be opened in our street next week.

8 The question is still been discussedis still discussingis still being discussed at the meeting.

9 The car isn't there anymore. It must have beingmust bemust have been stolen.

10 He wasn't being toldhadn't toldhadn't been told about the decision and got angry.

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The passive voice with the different tenses

In a passive sentence, the object of an active sentence becomes the subject. Then, we have to use the verb be in the tense we need and add the past participle of the main verb after it. In a passive voice sentence, the subject is the receiver of the action, not the doer of the action.

• They take the photos in Africa. (active)
• The photos are taken in Africa. (passive)

You can see how to use the passive voice with different tenses below.

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When do we use the passive voice?

In English, we use the passive voice when we don’t know or we don’t want to talk about who or what does the action in a sentence. Check the following examples.

• A bank was robbed yesterday. (=We don’t know who robbed the bank.)
• He was arrested last night. (=It’s obvious that the police arrested him.)
• I have been told that you insulted my brother. (=I don’t want to say who told me.)
• Jurassic Park was filmed by Spielberg in 1993. (=I’m talking about Jurassic Park and not about Spielberg.)

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