Passives

Do you know how to use the passive voice to shift the focus of a sentence? Enhance your knowledge with a lesson given below and the grammar explanation to guide you better.

Look at these examples to see how the passive voice is used:

• The new shopping mall was opened last month.

• The song was composed by John Mayer.

• The presentation will be given by the marketing team tomorrow.

• This movie has been watched by millions worldwide.

Help me with the IELTS Registration

Grammar explanation - Passives

We use the passive voice to shift the focus of the sentence.

• My phone was repaired yesterday. (passive – focus on my phone)

• Someone repaired my phone. (active – focus on someone)

We often use the passive:

• when we prefer not to mention who or what does the action (for example, it's not known, it's obvious, or we don't want to say)

• so that we can start a sentence with the most important or most logical information

• in more formal or scientific writing.

How we make the passive

We form the passive using the verb be + past participle. We start the sentence with the object.

It is not always necessary to mention who or what did the action.

Only the form of be changes to match the tense. The past participle stays the same. Here are examples of the passive in its most common tenses: