Why Passive Voice?

The passive voice is used when it is convenient or interesting to stress the thing done than the doer of it or when we are not interested about the doer or the doer is unknown. In theory sentences containing transitive verbs can be turned into passive.

It is very easy to recognize a passive voice sentence. If the verb of any sentence that has ‘Be + V3’ form, you are sure that it is a passive voice sentence. The ‘Be’ forms are:

V1          V2          V3          V4          V5

V1	V2	V3	V4	V5	V3	V3
He is I am You are They are	He was I was You were They were	| | | | |	| | | | |	| | | | |	| | | | |	beaten beaten beaten beaten
They have He has	Had had	been been	| | |	| | |	| | |	beaten beaten
They are He is I am	were was was		being being being	| | | |	| | | |	beaten beaten beaten
They have He has	Had had	been been	eating eating	| | |	| | |	beaten beaten
I will I shall I can I may I must I need to I ought to	would should could might had to needed to			(to)be (to)be (to)be (to)be (to)be (to)be (to)be	| | | | | | | |	beaten beaten beaten beaten beaten beaten beaten
I will I shall I can I may I must I need to I ought to	Would should could might had to needed to			(to)have (to)have (to)have (to)have (to)have (to)have (to)have	been been been been been been been	beaten beaten beaten beaten beaten beaten beaten

 

   V1          V2       V3      V4       V5         V3
Is/am/are   was/were   been   being   (to) be   +   V3

The above chart shows you how passive voice verb is formed. There are only twelve Passive Voice Tense Patterns in English and they are given below.

 

Passive Voice Tense Patterns

There are ten common tense patterns in the passive voice. The other four patterns we use in the active voice are very rarely used in the passive. The Object of the Active Voice sentence becomes the Subject of the Passive Voice sentence. We have used  ‘O’ to indicate the subject of the passive verb for convenience.

Passive Voice Tenses Patterns

Future

Future Simple Tense        O + will + be + V3(by agent)
Future Progressive Tense          ..............................
Future Perfect progressive Tense  ..............................
Future Perfect Tense       O + will + have + been + V3(by agent)
  

Present

Present Simple Tense       O + is/ am/ are + V3(by agent)
Present Progressive Tense  O + is/ am/ are + being + V3(by agent)
Present Perfect progressive Tense  .............................
Present Perfect Tense      O + has/ have + been + V3(by agent)

Past

Past Simple Tense          O + was / were + V3(by agent)
Past Progressive Tense     O + was / were + being + V3(by agent)
Past Perfect progressive Tense     .............................
Past Perfect Tense         O + had + been + V3(by agent)

 

Conditionals

Conditional Simple Tense   O + would + be +V3(by agent)
Conditional Perfect Tense  O + would + have + been +V3(by agent)

 

The following two sentence patterns do not belong to main tense patterns.

Future with ‘going to’ O + is / am / are + going to + be + V3(by agent)

Past with ‘going to’    O + was / were + going to + be + V3(by agent)

 
e.g.,

The car will be repaired tomorrow.

The car will have been repaired by tomorrow.

The car is repaired at this garage.

The car is being repaired now.

The car has been repaired.

The car was repaired yesterday.

The car was being repaired when I went there.

The car had been repaired before I went to the garage.

The car is going to be repaired.

The car was going to be repaired when went to the garage.