is made

The passive

The passive

We use the active verb forms to say what people or things do. We use passive verb forms to say what happens, or what is done to people or things.

The passive form consists of to be (auxiliary verb) + past participle of verb.

  • These chairs are made in Australia.
  Active Passive
Present simple They make Toyota cars in Japan. Toyota cars are made in Japan.
Past simple Columbus discovered America. America was discovered by Columbus.

We use passive verb forms when:

-the agent (person or thing which does an action) is not known or isn't important.

  • Thirty thousand cars were produced last year.
  • Help! My wallet has been stolen.

-the speaker is more interested in the object of the active sentence.

  • Water has been discovered on the moon.
  • Computers are designed to switch themselves off at night.
  • A famous Van Gogh painting was stolen last night.

1. Past participles.

Which verb is regular?

Verb Past Past participle
harvest harvested harvested
grow grew grown

 

2. Irregular verbs.

Now match the participles to these irregular verbs.

For a list of participles of irregular verbs see the Grammar Reference.

3. Active vs. passive form.

Are these sentences active or passive?

When passive forms appear together it is not necessary to repeat the auxiliary to be. For example,

The beans are cleaned, are selected, are mixed and are roasted.

is normally written like this:

The beans are cleaned, selected, mixed and roasted.

4. Find examples.

Underline examples of passive forms in the text. (There are 17 examples.)

5. Word order.

Put the words in order to make more passive sentences.

6. Passive forms.

Now change these sentences from active to passive.

For example:

They grow oranges in Spain.
Oranges are grown in Spain.

Students write the stories.
The stories are written by students.

For more information about passive verb forms see the Grammar Reference.