Passive Voice

We use the Passive Voice when the agent of the action is unknown, unimportant or when we want to
omit it.

e.g. All the books were sold. (we don’t know by who)

Other examples:

e.g. 1. She writes poems – Active Voice, Present Simple

She = subject, poems = object

The poems are written by her. – Passive Voice, Present Simple

2. She is writing poems these days. – Active Voice, Present Continuous

The poems are being written by her these days. – Passive Voice, Present Continuous

3. She wrote a poem last week. - Active Voice, Past Simple

A poem was written by her last week. - Passive Voice, Past Simple

4. She has written ten poems so far. - Active Voice, Present Perfect Simple

Ten poems have been written by her so far. - Passive Voice, Present Perfect Simple

When we turn an active voice into a passive one, the subject in the active sentence becomes the object
in the passive sentence and the object in the active sentence becomes the subject in the passive.

We form the Passive Voice: Subject + to be (in the tense and aspect of the active verb) + V3 (the past
participle of the active verb)