We use the passive voice to give emphasis to the action of the sentence and not to the subject. In these sentences, the subject is obvious, irrelevant, unimportant, or unknown.

     To form the passive voice, we need to invert the order of the subject and object of the active sentence, insert the verb to be in the appropriate tense, and add the main verb in the past participle form.

     At the end of the sentence, we can include the word “by” + the original subject of the sentence (only when necessary).

Examples:

–  Active voice: Jhon makes cakes. (simple present)

–  Passive voice: Cakes are made by John. (the verb to be goes in simple present)

–  Active voice: People mix all the ingredients quickly.

–  Passive voice: All the ingredients are mixed quickly.

We can use the passive voice in all the different tenses.

Practice this lesson here: PSV001.