Страдательный залог: более сложные случаи

When you use it

The basic passive puts the receiver of an action in the subject position and drops or delays the doer. At B2 the same idea reaches into more complex sentences: verbs with two objects, reports of what people think or say, modal verbs, perfect forms, infinitives and -ing forms. Formal writing, news and academic English rely on these patterns because they let the writer stay impersonal and keep the important noun at the front of the sentence.

How it is formed

Every passive is a form of be plus the past participle. The tense and modality live in be; the participle never changes.

When a verb has two objects (give, send, offer, show, tell), either object can become the subject. English strongly prefers the person: I was given the book is more natural than The book was given to me.

With reporting verbs (say, think, believe, know, report, expect), the personal pattern uses a to-infinitive whose form shows time: to be for the present, to have been for an earlier action (he is believed to have left the country).

The get-passive is informal and usually describes something that happens to a person, often unexpectedly or unpleasantly: get hurt, get caught, get paid, get fired. It is rare in formal writing and cannot describe states (the shop is closed, not gets closed, when you mean the state).

Examples

• Anna was given a free ticket by the manager.
• Tom is said to be the best cook in the family.
• It is thought that the bridge was built around 1890.
• The report must have been sent to the wrong address.
• Nobody likes being told what to do.
• The kitchen is being painted this week, so we are eating out.
• Tom got hurt playing football on Sunday.
• The letters should have been posted yesterday.

Common mistakes

• ✗ The book was gave to me.
  ✓ The book was given to me.
  After be the verb must be the past participle, never the past simple. Russian and Ukrainian handle this idea with an impersonal active sentence (мне дали книгу, мені дали книгу) that contains no participle at all, so the form gets little practice.
• ✗ Me was offered a job. / ✗ To me was offered a job.
  ✓ I was offered a job.
  Мне предложили работу keeps the person in the dative case. English can move that person into the subject position, and a subject takes the subject form, I, not me.
• ✗ The house is building now.
  ✓ The house is being built now.
  Russian and Ukrainian can express a passive with the reflexive ending (дом строится, будинок будується), and the verb looks active. English needs be + being + participle for a passive in progress. Is building means that the house is doing the building.
• ✗ He is said that he is rich.
  ✓ He is said to be rich. / ✓ It is said that he is rich.
  There are two reporting passives and they do not mix. Either start with it and keep the that-clause, or start with the person and continue with a to-infinitive.
• ✗ The accident was happened yesterday.
  ✓ The accident happened yesterday.
  Verbs without an object, such as happen, arrive, appear and die, have no passive. The reflexive Russian случилось looks passive and tempts learners to add be.

Try it