How to write in the passive voice

To write in the passive voice, you need the past participle of the verb and the appropriate form of the verb ‘to be’.

The verb ‘to be’ will change depending on whether the subject is singular or plural and the tense. For example, if my subject was plural and I wanted the present tense, I’d use the plural present tense of the verb ‘to be’ - ‘are’:

The tables are finished.

‘Are’ is the plural present form of the verb ‘to be’, and ‘finished’ is the past participle form of the verb ‘finish’. Here’s another example, for the verb hate, with a singular subject and the past perfect tense:

He had been hated.

‘Had been’ is the singular past perfect form of the verb ‘to be’, and ‘hated’ is the past participle of the verb ‘hate’.

Here’s a table listing all the various forms of the ‘to be’ verb depending on tense and whether the subject is singular or plural.

Forms of the ‘to be’ verb
Tense	Singular	Plural
Present	is	are
Present perfect	has been	have been
Present progressive	is being	are being
Past	was	were
Past Perfect	had been	had been
Past Progressive	was being	were being
Future	will be	will be
Future Perfect	will have been	will have been

Handy Hint - ‘Lie’ versus ‘lay’

At school I always confused these two words and was never quite sure which one to use. As a result, I used both at random and most teachers didn’t seem to care that much. There are a few reasons why these words are so confusing.

Lie

Lie means to recline or put yourself in a horizontal or resting position. It’s an intransitive verb, which means that it doesn’t have an object that it acts on. So here it is in a simple sentence:

John is sick and needs to lie down.

In this sentence, ‘lie’ is in the present tense. It all gets confusing when we start to use other tenses, like the past tense:

John lay in bed all day yesterday.

‘Lay’ is the past tense form of ‘lie’. The problem is that it’s spelt exactly the same way as another word ‘lay’, which means something different.

Lay

When you ‘lay’ something, you put it down or place it somewhere. It’s a transitive verb, which means that it acts on something - it has an object. Here it is in a simple sentence:

Please lay the rug on the ground.

In this sentence, the verb ‘lay’ is in the present tense. What is the object of the verb ‘lay’? It’s the rug.

The past tense of the verb ‘lay’ is not too confusing - it’s ‘laid’. So here’s an example sentence:

The cutlery was already laid out on the table.

Here are some more example sentences that show different uses of the words.

The tyrannosaurus was lying on the ground.

In this sentence, we’re using the participle form of the verb ‘lie’. It’s an intransitive verb remember, so it doesn’t take an object.

The labourer had to ask the house owner where he should be laying the tiles.

In this sentence, the word ‘laying’ is the participle form of the verb ‘lay’. Since the verb ‘lay’ is a transitive verb, it needs an object to act on. In this case, the object is ‘tiles’.

In summary, here are the two verbs and how they are spelt for each tense:

Tense	Lie	Lay
Present	Lie	Lay
Past	Lay	Laid
Present Participle	Lying	Laying
Past Participle	Lain	Laid

Click here to move on to the next topic: The fibbing lie