The passive voice: All tenses

Exercises: 1 2 3

Exercise 2

Decide if the following sentences are active or passive and choose the correct option to complete them.

1 The report _______ two days ago.

A.should been finished

B.should finish

C.should have been finished

D.should have being finished

2 This kind of job used _______ only by professionals in the past.

A.to being done

B.to be done

C.to do

D.to been done

3 They hated _______ mercenaries, but that's what they were.

A.being called

B.to being called

C.be called

D.been called

4 The new product _______ by the FDA.

A.is now examined

B.is now examining

C.is now been examined

D.is now being examined

5 Why _______ about the meeting yesterday?

A.didn't I tell

B.hasn't I being told

C.wasn't I told

D.wasn't I been told

6 When we arrived the car _______.

A.had been disappeared

B.had disappeared

C.was being disappeared

D.was disappear

7 _______ soon? Do you think you'll get the job?

A.Will you been interviewed

B.Will you interview

C.Will you being interviewed

D.Will you be interviewed

8 Lots of free gifts _______ away among the participants.

A.will been given

B.are give

C.are being given

D.are giving

9 The school _______ accommodation for the students.

A.doesn't normally provide

B.isn't normally been provided

C.isn't normally being provided

D.isn't normally provide

10 She _______ of the accident yet.

A.hasn't informed

B.hasn't been informed

C.hasn't being informed

D.wasn't been informed

Exercises: 1 2 3

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.

A grammar chart explaining the passive voice in all the verb tenses, comparing active and passive forms with examples like "They take the photos" and "The photos are taken."

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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.)