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What is the Passive Voice Tense

By hndeadmin • August 10, 2022 • Passive-Voice • 4,339 views

The passive voice is a grammatical construction where the subject is removed and its function is assigned to some other word or phrase, known as the object. In English, the passive voice is formed by using the verb BE in a sentence, instead of a third person singular personal pronoun (I, you, he/she/it).

Examples:

‘The book was written by John’, not ‘~~John wrote the book~~’; ‘He came down the stairs’, not “~~The stairs brought him down~~”; ‘I drank the milk’, not „~~the milk drank me~~”. In standard style guides, passive sentences are considered ungrammatical and should be avoided. However, if a writer wants to emphasize the subject of their sentence, then they may choose to use the passive voice. To avoid confusion, writers often use a dash between the verb and the object to differentiate them.

What are Passive Voice Tenses?

Passive voice tenses are verbs where the subject is not changed but the direct object changes. These include the present progressive (present tense) and past participle forms (past tense). When using a verb in a passive voice construction, the subject takes the place of the direct object. In other words, instead of saying, "The boy was hit," we would say, "The boy was being hit." If we were talking about a group activity, then the teacher could be acting as the subject. To understand the difference between active and passive voice, look at these examples:

Active Voice Examples:

I went to the store. The kids painted the fence. He gave me the book. She played the violin.

Passive Voice Examples:

I am going to the store. We are painting the fence. They have given him the book. They are playing the violin. Change above sentences into Passive.

To use passive voice properly, here's what you need to remember:

Use the word BE if a gerund is desired.

1st Passive Voice Tense: was

was means that something happened before someone did it. For example: I bought some books yesterday. The verb 'to buy' (verb) happened first, then I did it. It's just like if we were talking about our own personal lives. We would say "I went to school." instead of "School went me" because school had already happened. You could use it for events in the past: "We watched a movie last night." instead of "Last night we watched a movie."

2nd Passive Voice Tense: were

where meant who did what first. Example: I was born in New York City. When the sentence says "I was born", it basically means "I'm telling you how old I am". In this case, it's saying "I" did "born" first, then it happened to me. This is also very similar to our personal lives. If you want to talk about a time period in the past, you could say "Where I grew up..." "Where I lived...etc."

3rd Passive Voice Tense: will be

will be means that something will happen in the future. For example: I will buy some books tomorrow. (Active) The books will bought by me tomorrow. (Passive)