THE PASSIVE VOICE

PASSIVE TENSES AND ACTIVE EQUIVALENTS

Notice that the tense of the verb to be in the passive voice is the same as the tense of the main verb in the active voice.

Example: to keep

TENSE / VERB FORM	ACTIVE VOICE	PASSIVE VOICE
Simple present	keeps	is kept
Present continuous	is keeping	is being kept
Simple past	kept	was kept
Past continuous	was keeping	was being kept
Present perfect	have kept	have been kept
Past perfect	had kept	had been kept
future	will keep	will be kept
Conditional present	would keep	would be kept
Conditional past	would have kept	would have been kept
present infinitive	to keep	to be kept
perfect infinitive	to have kept	to have been kept
present participle/gerund	keeping	being kept
perfect participle	having kept	having been kept

Example sentences:

Active: I keep the butter in the fridge.
Passive: The butter is kept in the fridge.

Active: They stole the painting.
Passive: The painting was stolen.

Active: They are repairing the road.
Passive: The road is being repaired.

Active: Shakespeare wrote Hamlet.
Passive: Hamlet was written by Shakespeare.

Active: A dog bit him.
Passive: He was bitten by a dog.