Grammar › Present passive

Present passive: positive sentences

610 fill-in-the-gap exercises, 61 tests of ten

Choose is or are by the subject, then add the past participle.

The past participle is the third form in verb tables: written, gone, built. It never changes with the subject.

The pattern

Two words and one decision:

The lawn is mowed twice a month. The lawns are mowed twice a month.

Nouns that look plural but are not

These take is, which trips people up:

The news is… Mathematics is… Twenty euros is… The team is…

Adding the doer

The by phrase goes at the end and is optional:

The invoices are issued by the accounts office.

Leave it out whenever the doer is unknown, unimportant or obvious:

The invoices are issued on the first working day.

get instead of be

In informal speech, get replaces be for things that happen to someone, especially unwelcome ones:

The parcels get delivered to the wrong flat all the time.

It is correct and very common, but out of place in formal writing.

All forms

Examples

Taken from the 610 sentences in this drill. The answer is highlighted.

• The report is written by the team leader.
• Important decisions are made by the board of directors.
• The newspaper is read by many people in the morning.
• The music is played on a loudspeaker at the concert.
• The airport is used by a lot of people every day.
• The window is cleaned by a company from the village.
• The parcel is delivered to the office.
• The new building is designed by a renowned architect.
• The picture is painted by an artist.
• The concert tickets are sold on the official website.
• The job is performed by experienced professionals.
• Beautiful flowers are planted in the garden.

Mistakes to avoid

Other forms of Present passive