What is the passive voice?
The passive voice, unlike the active voice, focuses on the action in a sentence. You can form passive sentences with the verbs be or get and a past participle. Take a look at the table below to see the different forms of "be" and "get" that can be found in passive sentences.
| Forms of "be" | am, are, is, was, were, be, been, being |
| Forms of "get" | get, gets, got, gotten, getting |
My bike was stolen.
The case of Jack the Ripper has never been solved.
Look at the chart below to see how the passive voice can be used in different tenses. Pay attention to which forms of "be" and "get" are used in which particular tense.
| Tense | Example |
|---|---|
| Simple Present | The baby kittens are fed six times a day. |
| Simple Past | Yousef's birthday cake finally got baked before midnight. |
| Present Progressive | Ella's first novel is still being written. |
| Past Progressive | While they were enjoying their dinner, the Websters had no idea their car was being stolen. |
| Present Perfect | Their car has not been seen for a week. |
| Past Perfect | The police finally found the car that had been stolen. |
| Future | As part of the cancer research fundraiser, Jackson's head will be shaved. |
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