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Passive Voice: How to Use the Passive Voice with Different Tenses
Passive Voice: How to Use the Passive Voice with Different Tenses 1

Passive Voice: How to Use the Passive Voice with Different Tenses

March 30, 2016 grammar lessons, Editor Picks, Grammar No Comments

How to use passive voice with different tenses?

Passive Voice

The passive voice is a grammatical construction. The noun or a noun phrase that would be the object of an active sentence (such as Our troops defeated the enemy) appears as the subject of a sentence with passive voice (e.g. The enemy was defeated by our troops).

For example:

“… that all men are created equal…”

“We have been cruelly deceived.”

“The captain was struck by a missile.”

“I got kicked in the face during the fight.”

How to Use the Passive Voice with Different Tenses

We can use passive voice with most tenses.

To change the tense of a passive sentence, you change the form of the verb ‘be’. The main verb in a passive sentence is always in the past participle form.

Using the Passive Voice with Different Tenses

Tenses Subject Verb Object
Simple Present Active Marry serves the food
Passive The food is served by Marry
Simple Past Active Marry served the food
Passive The food was served by Marry
Present Perfect Active Marry has served the food
Passive The food has been served By Marry
Future I Active Marry will serve the food
Passive The food Will be served by Marry
Present Progressive Active Marry is serving the food
Passive The food is being served by Marry
Past Progressive Active Marry was serving the food
Passive The food was being served by Marry
Past Perfect Active Marry had served the food
Passive The food had been served by Marry
Future II Active Marry will have served the food
Passive The food will have been served by Marry
Conditional I Active Marry would serve the food
Passive The food would be served by Marry
Conditional II Active Marry would have served the food
Passive The food would have been served by Marry

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