Passive: Simple Tenses Practice Tests with A2 Grammar Rules & Examples

Passive: Simple Tenses

In English, we usually say who does something. But sometimes we want to talk about what happens to something or someone — or we do not know who did the action. This is when we use the passive voice.

Look at these two sentences:

Active: The chef cooks the meal.
Passive: The meal is cooked by the chef.

In the active sentence, the chef (the person doing the action) comes first. In the passive sentence, the meal (the thing receiving the action) comes first. The chef is now less important.

In this lesson, we will learn how to make the passive in two simple tenses: the Present Simple and the Past Simple. These are called the passive simple tenses.

What Is the Passive Voice?

Let us start with a small story:

Maria works in a factory. Every day, cars are built in the factory. Yesterday, 50 cars were finished. Maria does not know who painted some of the cars.

Notice: cars are built and cars were finished. We are talking about what happens to the cars, not about who is doing the work. This is the passive voice.

We use the passive voice when:

• The person doing the action is not known.
• The person doing the action is not important.
• We want to focus on what happened, not on who did it.

Rule Breakdown: How to Form the Passive

To make a passive sentence, we need two things:

1. The correct form of the verb "to be"
2. The past participle of the main verb

What Is a Past Participle?

A past participle is a form of a verb. For regular verbs, it looks the same as the past simple — you add -ed to the base verb.

• cook → cooked
• clean → cleaned
• fix → fixed
• open → opened

For irregular verbs, the past participle is a special form you need to learn:

• write → written
• make → made
• eat → eaten
• see → seen
• build → built
• break → broken
• steal → stolen
• send → sent

Passive: Present Simple

We use the Present Simple Passive to talk about things that happen regularly or are generally true — but we focus on the thing, not the person doing it.

Formula

Subject + am / is / are + past participle

Examples

• The windows are cleaned every week.
• English is spoken in many countries.
• The letters are delivered in the morning.
• The food is cooked in a big kitchen.
• I am paid on Fridays.

Present Simple Passive: Forms of "To Be"

Subject	Form of "to be"	Example
I	am	I am invited to the party.
He / She / It	is	The car is washed every day.
We / You / They	are	The shops are closed on Sunday.

Negative Form: Present Simple Passive

To make a negative sentence, add not after am / is / are.

Subject + am / is / are + not + past participle

• The windows are not cleaned every day.
• The food is not cooked here.
• I am not invited to the meeting.

Question Form: Present Simple Passive

To make a question, put am / is / are before the subject.

Am / Is / Are + subject + past participle?

• Is the food cooked here?
• Are the letters delivered in the morning?
• Am I included in the list?

Passive: Past Simple

We use the Past Simple Passive to talk about things that happened in the past — but we focus on what happened to something or someone, not on who did it.

Formula

Subject + was / were + past participle

Examples

• The window was broken last night.
• The emails were sent yesterday.
• A new school was built in our town.
• The children were taken to the park.
• My phone was stolen on the bus.

Past Simple Passive: Forms of "To Be"

Subject	Form of "to be"	Example
I / He / She / It	was	The letter was written yesterday.
We / You / They	were	The boxes were opened this morning.

Negative Form: Past Simple Passive

To make a negative sentence, add not after was / were.

Subject + was / were + not + past participle

• The window was not cleaned last week.
• The emails were not sent on time.
• The door was not locked.

Question Form: Past Simple Passive

To make a question, put was / were before the subject.

Was / Were + subject + past participle?

• Was the window broken?
• Were the emails sent?
• Was the car repaired?

Full Comparison Table: Active vs Passive

Tense	Active Sentence	Passive Sentence
Present Simple	Someone cleans the office.	The office is cleaned.
Present Simple	They sell the tickets online.	The tickets are sold online.
Present Simple	She speaks French.	French is spoken (by her).
Past Simple	Someone built this house in 1990.	This house was built in 1990.
Past Simple	They arrested the man.	The man was arrested.
Past Simple	Someone stole my bag.	My bag was stolen.

Using "By" in Passive Sentences

Sometimes we want to say who did the action. We use the word "by" to do this.

Passive sentence + by + the person / thing that did the action

• The window was broken by Tom.
• The meal is cooked by the chef.
• The book was written by a famous author.
• English is spoken by millions of people.

But remember — we often do NOT use "by" if the person is unknown or not important:

• My phone was stolen. (We do not know who did it.)
• The rubbish is collected on Tuesdays. (It is not important who collects it.)

Important Differences and Special Cases

Was or Were?

A very common mistake is using was and were with the wrong subject. Remember:

• Use was with: I, he, she, it (singular)
• Use were with: we, you, they (plural)

Think about the noun in your sentence. Is it one thing or more than one thing?

• The car was repaired. (one car = was)
• The cars were repaired. (more than one car = were)

Is or Are?

The same rule applies to the present simple passive:

• Use is with he, she, it — and singular nouns.
• Use are with we, you, they — and plural nouns.

• The shop is closed. (one shop = is)
• The shops are closed. (more than one shop = are)

Active or Passive? How to Choose

Use Active when...	Use Passive when...
You know who does the action	You do not know who does the action
The person doing it is important	The person doing it is not important
The sentence feels personal	You want to focus on the thing or result

Common Mistakes

❌ The car is fix every year.
✅ The car is fixed every year. (Use the past participle: fixed, not fix.)

❌ The windows was cleaned yesterday.
✅ The windows were cleaned yesterday. (Windows is plural — use were, not was.)

❌ The letter were sent last Monday.
✅ The letter was sent last Monday. (Letter is singular — use was, not were.)

❌ My bag was steal on the bus.
✅ My bag was stolen on the bus. (Use the past participle: stolen, not steal.)

❌ English are spoken in many countries.
✅ English is spoken in many countries. (English is singular — use is, not are.)

❌ The food is cooked by they.
✅ The food is cooked by them. (After "by", use object pronouns: them, him, her — not subject pronouns.)

❌ Was the emails sent?
✅ Were the emails sent? (Emails is plural — use were, not was.)

Contractions in the Passive

In everyday spoken English and informal writing, we often shorten is not and are not and was not and were not.

Full Form	Contraction	Example
is not	isn't	The shop isn't closed today.
are not	aren't	The tickets aren't sold here.
was not	wasn't	The window wasn't broken by me.
were not	weren't	The emails weren't sent yesterday.

In formal writing, always use the full forms: is not, are not, was not, were not.

Passive Simple Tenses: Quick Summary

Here is everything you need to remember about the passive simple tenses:

• Use the passive to focus on what happens to something, not who does it.
• The passive is made with: to be + past participle.
• For Present Simple Passive, use am / is / are + past participle.
• For Past Simple Passive, use was / were + past participle.
• Use is / was with singular nouns (one thing).
• Use are / were with plural nouns (more than one thing).
• To say who did the action, add "by" at the end.
• Always use the past participle — not the base verb or past simple form.

Tense	Formula	Example
Present Simple Passive	am / is / are + past participle	The office is cleaned every day.
Past Simple Passive	was / were + past participle	The window was broken last night.

Now practise passive simple tenses in the exercises below.