These questions ask you to choose the voice that fits both the verb and the intended focus. A sentence may be grammatically active yet unsuitable for a context that puts the affected person or thing first, while some event verbs cannot become passive at all.
Decide roles before building the verb
Start by identifying the event and asking whether the verb can take an object in the intended meaning. If it cannot, keep the verb active. If it can, name the two possible roles: the agent performs the action and the receiver is affected by it. Next decide which role the context makes the topic. Choose the passive when the receiver is the topic or when the agent is unknown, obvious or unimportant; these are alternative reasons, not conditions that must both apply. Choose the active when the doer is the topic. If the receiver is the topic and a known agent adds useful information, keep that agent in a by-phrase.
| Decision signal | Voice decision |
|---|---|
| The verb describes an event with no object, such as happening, arriving, dying or occurring | Keep it active. There is no receiver that can become a passive subject. |
| The doer is the main point and needs to be named | Use the active so the agent occupies subject position. |
| The affected person or thing is the main point | Use the passive. Omit an unknown or unhelpful agent, but keep a known, useful agent in a by-phrase if it adds information. |
| The agent is unknown, obvious or unimportant | Use the passive and normally omit the agent, even when receiver focus is not separately stated. |
Once the voice is chosen, build only that pattern. An active clause uses the agent as subject followed by the finite verb and, when required, its object. A be-passive uses the receiver as subject followed by the correctly tensed form of be and the past participle. Time still controls the form of be: a completed past event needs a past form, and a present routine needs a present form.
Common wrong turns
- A vague or routine agent is promoted to subject even when the receiver is the stated topic. The active clause may be possible in isolation, but it shifts attention away from the intended focus.
- The receiver is placed before an active verb and is made to perform an implausible action on a person. Recheck the roles: if the subject is affected, it needs a passive construction rather than an active verb with an invented object.
- A form of be is followed by an -ing form and treated as passive. Be plus -ing expresses an ongoing active action by the subject; a passive instead needs the past participle after be.
- A form of be is attached to an intransitive event verb. Topic status does not create a receiver: if the verb has no object in that meaning, adding be cannot make it passive.
Try it
The telescope is the topic, and nobody knows who caused the damage during last night's break-in. The telescope ___ near the focusing wheel.
- was damaged
- damaged an unknown visitor
- was damaging overnight
- did damage near the wheel
The affected objects are the topics, and the agents are unknown. Select all sentences that fit this stated voice condition.
- The side gate was unlocked before dawn.
- Somebody altered the reservation after lunch.
- The specimen was placed in the wrong cabinet.
- The interruption was happened during the broadcast.
Use the be-passive form of the verb in brackets in the past simple. The parcels are the topic, and the packing staff are obvious: the parcels ___ before loading yesterday. (seal)