Present and past passive: how is it made? Passive voice exercises in the present and past

This B1 drill lesson gives present and past passive exercises: is made and was built, irregular past participles, negatives and questions, and choosing active or passive.

Grammar: Am / is / are and was / were + past participle, regular and irregular participles (grown, stolen, bought), negatives, questions and short answers, Who … by?, and by only when it adds something.
Topic: Hazelmere Chocolate Works, an invented factory in Savannah: a tour card from bean to bar, the guide's welcome talk, a visitor's review, the FAQ page and a chat with Yolanda.
Activities: True or false, sorting, choices, gap-fills, memory games, drag-and-drop, word order, matching, tables, an anagram, quizzes and a chat.

What's inside

Chapter 1The rule
- PictureUnlock
- Study the scheme: the passive, present and pastGrammar schemeTry it
- Is the sentence correct? Mark true or falseTrue or falseUnlock
- Sort the sentences: active or passive?Sort into columnsTry it
- Choose am, is, are, was or wereChoose the optionUnlock
- Write the past participleFill in the gapsUnlock
Chapter 2Is it made by hand?
- Fill in the gaps: is / are + past participleFill in the gapsTry it
- Choose the right formChoose the optionUnlock
- Find the matching pairs: verb and past participleMemory gameUnlock
- Drag the words into the gapsDrag and dropUnlock
- Fill in the gaps: negatives and questionsFill in the gapsUnlock
- Put the words in the right orderUnjumbleUnlock
- Match the beginnings and the endingsMatchUnlock
Chapter 3When was it built?
- Fill in the gaps: was / were + past participleFill in the gapsUnlock
- Choose the right past formChoose the optionTry it
- Fill in the table: was / were + past participleFill in the tableUnlock
- Fill in the gaps: negatives and questions in the pastFill in the gapsUnlock
- Put the words in order to make questionsUnjumbleUnlock
- Match the questions and the answersMatchUnlock
- Read about the Bellhaven Cinema and fill in the gaps with the passiveFill in the gapsUnlock
Chapter 4Active or passive?
- Choose active or passiveChoose the optionUnlock
- Fill in the gaps: present or past passiveFill in the gapsUnlock
- Fill in the table: active to passiveFill in the tableTry it
- Write the sentences in the passive: by or no by?Fill in the gapsUnlock
- Put the words in the right order: who did it?UnjumbleUnlock
- Find the mistake and choose the right wordsQuizUnlock
- Read the news story and drag the words into the gapsDrag and dropUnlock
Chapter 5Real life: From bean to bar
- Read the tour cardReal-life documentUnlock
- Read the tour card again: true or false?True or falseUnlock
- Read Fenella's welcome talk and fill in the gaps with the passiveFill in the gapsUnlock
- Read Radomir's review and drag the words into the gapsDrag and dropUnlock
- Read the factory's FAQ page and choose the right wordsChoose the optionUnlock
- Choose the right replies: Yolanda texts youChatTry it
- Test yourself: choose the right answerQuizUnlock
Chapter 6Homework
- Choose is, are, was or wereChoose the optionUnlock
- Write the past participle: irregular verbsFill in the gapsUnlock
- Unscramble the past participlesAnagramUnlock
- Fill in the gaps with the present or past passiveFill in the gapsUnlock
- Put the words in the right order: passive sentencesUnjumbleUnlock
- Fill in the table: from present to pastFill in the tableUnlock
- Sort the sentences: present or past passive?Sort into columnsUnlock
- Choose active or passive: who does what?Choose the optionUnlock
- Write the questions in the passiveFill in the gapsUnlock
- Match the beginnings and the endings: passive sentencesMatchUnlock
- Choose the correct sentenceQuizUnlock
- Read the hotel notice and fill in the gaps with the passiveFill in the gapsUnlock
- Read the news item and drag the words into the gapsDrag and dropUnlock
- Read Priscilla's forum post and choose the right wordsChoose the optionUnlock
- Find the matching pairs: active and passiveMemory gameUnlock

Grammar: the passive in the present and the past

The passive puts the thing, not the person, first: The pods are picked by hand. Use it when the thing or the action matters more than who does it. Only be changes with the tense: am, is or are for now, was or were for finished actions, always with the past participle.

The passive: is made, was built

Use the passive when the thing or the action matters more than who does it: be + past participle.

Be + past participle

Be agrees with the subject: I am invited, She is invited, They were made here. Negatives add not (isn't, weren't), and questions put be before the subject: Was it made here?

be + past participle

the thingam / is / are · was / werepast participle(by + who did it)

Cocoa is grown in hot countries near the equator.

The first chocolate bars were made in the 1800s.

This photo was taken by my grandpa.

Every person: + − ?

Who / what	Present: am / is / are + participle	Past: was / were + participle
I	I am invited. · I am not / I'm not invited. · Am I invited?	I was invited. · I was not / wasn't invited. · Was I invited?
you	You are invited. · You are not / aren't invited. · Are you invited?	You were invited. · You were not / weren't invited. · Were you invited?
he / she	She is invited. · She is not / isn't invited. · Is she invited?	He was invited. · He was not / wasn't invited. · Was he invited?
it	It is made here. · It is not / isn't made here. · Is it made here?	It was made here. · It was not / wasn't made here. · Was it made here?
we	We are invited. · We are not / aren't invited. · Are we invited?	We were invited. · We were not / weren't invited. · Were we invited?
they	They are made here. · They are not / aren't made here. · Are they made here?	They were made here. · They were not / weren't made here. · Were they made here?

Past participles: the third form

Regular verbs add -ed, with the usual spelling changes: cleaned, stopped, carried. Irregular verbs have a third form to learn: build – built, write – written, steal – stolen, grind – ground.

Verb	Participle	Verb	Participle	Verb	Participle
clean (regular)	cleaned	stop (regular)	stopped	carry (regular)	carried
build	built	make	made	grow	grown
write	written	speak	spoken	steal	stolen
take	taken	eat	eaten	break	broken
choose	chosen	sell	sold	find	found
send	sent	pay	paid	buy	bought
bring	brought	catch	caught	teach	taught
wear	worn	hide	hidden	see	seen
do	done	drive	driven	throw	thrown
hold	held	keep	kept	feed	fed
bite	bitten	freeze	frozen	wake	woken
leave	left	lose	lost	grind	ground
sing	sung	drink	drunk	show	shown
put	put	hurt	hurt	run	run

Present or past?

The present passive describes facts, processes and rules: The pool is cleaned twice a week. The past passive is for finished actions, often with a time phrase: My bike was stolen last night.

Present: facts, processes, rules

every day · usually · today · these days
The pool is cleaned twice a week.
Rice is eaten all over Asia.

Past: finished actions

yesterday · last week · in 1937 · two years ago
My bike was stolen last night.
These houses were built in the 1920s.

Active or passive, with or without by

Keep the active when the doer matters: My grandma made this cake. In the passive, add by only when the doer is important or new (Guernica was painted by Picasso), and never write by someone or by people.

Active or passive?

Active: the person who does it is the subject

Use it when who does it is important.
Workers pick the pods by hand.
My grandma made this cake.

Passive: the thing is the subject

Use it when the thing or the action is more important.
The pods are picked by hand.
This cake was made by my grandma.

When do we use by?

Use by + who did it when that is important or new: Guernica was painted by Picasso. Leave it out when we don't know who did it, when it's obvious or when it isn't important: My phone was stolen. Cheese is made from milk. Don't add by someone or by people: they say nothing new.

Common mistakes

Expect These boots are make in Spain, Our school was builded, a missing be (The hospital built in 1932) and Where this coffee is grown? The passive needs both be and the participle.

These boots are make in Spain.
These boots are made in Spain.
be + past participle, not the base form
Our school was builded in 1965.
Our school was built in 1965.
irregular verbs: build → built
The hospital built in 1932.
The hospital was built in 1932.
don't forget am / is / are / was / were
Where this coffee is grown?
Where is this coffee grown?
questions: be comes before the subject

Examples

Are the drinks included? No, they aren't.question and short answer
The windows weren't cleaned last week.negative
When was this castle built?wh- question
Who was this book written by?Who … by?
I was born in 2005.you know this one: be born
My password was stolen.no by: we don't know who

More lessons on this grammar: Passive voice lessons and exercises

Try the present and past passive exercises

Try them yourself: these are the same exercises your students do in edio.

What's in the lesson

39 auto-checked exercises
7 games
1 real-life document
1 grammar scheme
1 picture

The main objectives of this lesson are to:

make the passive with be + past participle: Cocoa is grown in hot countries. These houses were built in the 1920s.
use the participle, not the base form: These boots are made in Spain, not are make; was built, not was builded
put be first in questions and short answers: Where is this coffee grown? Are the drinks included? No, they aren't.
choose active or passive, and drop by when it says nothing new: My password was stolen. This cake was made by my grandma.

Grammar:: passive voice · present simple passive · past simple passive · past participles
Topic:: grammar practice · how things are made · chocolate · factory tour

Teaching tips

Trace a product from start to shelf: after the tour card, pairs pick something they own, such as jeans or coffee, and describe its journey in five passive steps: The cotton is picked…
Play participle ping-pong: call out a verb (steal, choose, hide) and a student answers with a short passive sentence before passing a new verb on: It was stolen.
Ask who made what: each student writes one question with by at the end, like Who was this song written by?, and the class answers with a full passive sentence.

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The whole course: English Grammar Practice · B1

English Grammar Practice · B1 has 28 drill lessons, one grammar point each: the present perfect continuous, narrative tenses, future forms, modals of deduction, the second conditional, the passive, relative clauses, reported speech, question tags and linkers. Each has the rule as a scheme, 43 to 47 exercises that check themselves, 15 of them for homework, and no new words.See the course

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