English Advanced Passive Voice

The impersonal passive reports beliefs, opinions, or facts without attributing them to a specific source. It is formed with it + passive + that-clause: It is believed that..., It is reported that..., It was assumed that..., It has been suggested that.... It is widely used in academic writing, news reporting, and formal documents to present information objectively and to hedge claims by not committing the writer personally to the statement. The agent (who believes or reports) is omitted, making the claim seem more authoritative.

Both have the same meaning — they report what is generally said without identifying a source. The difference is structural: It is said that he left uses an impersonal it subject with a that-clause. He is said to have left promotes the person to subject position and uses a passive infinitive (to have + past participle to show the action was in the past). Both are correct in formal writing. The personal form (He is said to...) is often preferred because it allows the information about the person to come first, which can be clearer.

The structure is: modal + be + past participle for present/future passive: The report must be submitted. The data can be reanalysed. For past passive with modals: modal + have been + past participle: The error should have been detected. New evidence may have been overlooked. For necessity or obligation about the present: The proposal needs to be reviewed. For criticism or regret about the past: The decision could have been made sooner. Passive modal structures are essential in academic and professional English for expressing necessity, possibility, and obligation impersonally.

A double object passive applies to verbs that take both a direct and an indirect object: give, send, show, tell, offer, award, lend, owe, pay, promise, teach, write. These verbs have two passive possibilities. Active: The teacher gave the students a certificate. Passive 1 (indirect object as subject): The students were given a certificate. Passive 2 (direct object as subject): A certificate was given to the students. In formal English, Passive 1 (where the recipient becomes the subject) is the more common and natural choice.

A passive infinitive (to be + past participle) is used after verbs that take an infinitive when the subject is the recipient of the action: The files need to be updated. She expects to be interviewed next week. A passive gerund (being + past participle) is used after verbs and prepositions that take a gerund when the subject is the recipient: He hates being criticised. She is used to being observed. The perfect passive infinitive (to have been + past participle) refers to a completed past action: The letter appears to have been sent to the wrong address.

Academic writing prefers the passive for several reasons: (1) it focuses on the action or result rather than the agent, which suits scientific reporting (The data were collected over six months); (2) it allows the writer to avoid the first person (I, we), which is discouraged in formal academic style (It was found that... rather than We found that...); (3) it creates an objective, impersonal tone; (4) impersonal passives allow hedging without attributing claims to specific sources. However, overusing the passive can make writing unnecessarily dense, so a balance is recommended.

The by-phrase is used only when the agent (the doer of the action) is important and adds information that the reader needs. The novel was written by Orwell. The bridge was designed by a renowned architect. In most passive sentences, the agent is either unknown, unimportant, or obvious from context, so by is omitted: The windows were broken. The report has been submitted. A common error is including by unnecessarily: The decision was made by the management team can often be simplified to Management made the decision if the agent is the focus. Omitting by when the agent is not essential is a sign of mature passive usage.

The get passive (get + past participle) is an informal alternative to the be passive: She got promoted. The car got damaged in the storm. He got arrested. The get passive is common in spoken English and informal writing. It often implies that the event happened suddenly, unexpectedly, or as a result of the subject's own actions or circumstances. It is not normally used in academic writing or formal documents, where be passive is required. It can express a sense of the subject being actively involved in or affected by the outcome.

Advanced passive structures appear in Use of English Part 4 (key word transformation), where you must rewrite active sentences as passives or transform between the two impersonal passive patterns (It is said that... / He is said to...). They also appear in Part 1 (multiple choice cloze) and in Writing tasks, where using passive appropriately contributes to a formal register. Reading texts frequently use impersonal passives and passive modal structures, so recognising them is also important for comprehension.

No. Only transitive verbs (verbs that take a direct object) can normally form the passive. Intransitive verbs (verbs without a direct object) cannot be passivised: arrive, happen, occur, exist, consist of, lack. You cannot say: It was arrived or The problem was existed. Some verbs appear transitive but cannot be passivised in standard English: I have a car cannot become A car is had by me. Stative verbs describing states (resemble, contain, suit, fit) are generally not used in the passive either. When in doubt, test whether the sentence makes logical sense with a by-phrase.