Present passive: positive, negative, questions
1,520 fill-in-the-gap exercises across 3 forms
Is or are with the past participle. The whole grammar is in choosing which of the two.
Pick a form to practice
The same topic in other tenses
Everything turns on one choice
Once you know the passive is be plus the past participle, the present tense adds exactly one decision: is or are.
And the rule is simple, though it catches people out: the verb agrees with the subject of the passive sentence — the thing being acted on — not with whoever is doing the acting.
The reports are written by one person. — reports is plural, so are. The report is written by two people. — report is singular, so is.
The three sentence types
All three keep the same two pieces and move not or the verb as usual:
- The hall is cleaned every Friday.
- The hall isn’t cleaned on Sundays.
- Is the hall cleaned on Saturdays?
No do or does appears anywhere, because the sentence already has an auxiliary.
Where you will meet it
The present passive is the language of instructions, procedures and standing arrangements:
Payment is taken at the till. Bags are searched at the entrance. Coffee is grown in over fifty countries.
Turning an active sentence round
Three steps:
- take the object of the active sentence and put it first
- put is or are to match it
- change the verb to its past participle, and add by plus the old subject only if it is worth saying
Someone checks the bags. → The bags are checked.
All forms
| Singular | Plural | |
|---|---|---|
| positive | is cleaned | are cleaned |
| negative | isn't cleaned | aren't cleaned |
| question | Is it cleaned? | Are they cleaned? |
Mistakes to avoid
Wrong: The documents is signed by the director. correct: The documents are signed by the director.
The verb agrees with documents, not with director.
Wrong: The room doesn't cleaned on Sundays. correct: The room isn't cleaned on Sundays.
The auxiliary in a passive is be, so the negative is isn't.