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The Passive Voice: When the Actor Disappears
Level: B1 · 5 minutes · Teens & Adults
💡 Today’s Idea
Passive = to be + past participle.
Use it when the action is more important than who does it, or when the actor is unknown/unimportant.
Use it when the action is more important than who does it, or when the actor is unknown/unimportant.
📖 From My Experience
I learned the value of the passive voice in the most unpleasant way. When something went wrong at a restaurant — a dish arrived cold, a booking was lost — the passive was the language of institutional deflection: The booking was not entered into the system. Nobody did it. The passive erases the actor. In formal and institutional writing, this is sometimes deliberate. Understanding it is essential for reading official documents, workplace communication, and academic writing.
📚 Form & Examples
Active: The chef cooked the meal.
Passive: The meal was cooked by the chef.
Passive: The meal was cooked by the chef.
Active: Someone changed the record.
Passive: The record was changed.
Present passive: English is spoken worldwide.
✏️ Try It! (2 minutes)
Rewrite these sentences in the passive:
1. A teacher marked the essay.
2. Someone stole my bag.
3. The company sends the report every month.
🎯 Quick Quiz
The letter ___ yesterday. (send)
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