PE-60: Passive Voice: Present and Past
When the doer doesn't matter: be + V3. The structure behind almost all academic and news English.
PE-60: Passive Voice: Present and Past
"Somebody built this house in 1890." Who? Nobody knows, and nobody cares — the house is what matters. So English says: "This house was built in 1890." That is the passive voice, and it is everywhere in news, science and formal writing. Fortunately, Uzbek has a passive too, so the idea is already familiar.
In this lesson you will learn
- The formula be + V3 in the present and the past
- The four reasons English chooses the passive
- How to turn an active sentence into a passive one
- When to add by — and when to leave it out
1. Active and passive — the same event, a different focus
Active — the doer is the subject
- Millions of people speak English.
- Amir Temur built this mosque.
- Somebody stole my bike.
Passive — the receiver is the subject
- English is spoken by millions.
- This mosque was built by Amir Temur.
- My bike was stolen.
The letters are delivered every morning.
Xatlar har kuni ertalab yetkaziladi.
Who delivers them? The postman, obviously — so we don't bother saying it.
2. The two tenses
| Tense | Active | Passive |
|---|---|---|
| Present Simple | They clean the room. | The room is cleaned. |
| Present Simple (plural) | They clean the rooms. | The rooms are cleaned. |
| Past Simple | They cleaned the room. | The room was cleaned. |
| Past Simple (plural) | They cleaned the rooms. | The rooms were cleaned. |
Notice what carries the tense: the verb be. The V3 never changes at all.
3. Why choose the passive?
1The doer is unknown
My phone was stolen yesterday.
2The doer is obvious
He was arrested. (by the police, of course)
3The doer doesn't matter
Rice is grown in Khorezm.
4Formal / scientific writing
The water was heated to 80°.
4. How to change active into passive
- Find the object of the active sentence — it becomes the new subject. Ali wrote the letter.
- Put be in the same tense as the original verb. wrote (past) → was.
- Add the V3 of the main verb. → The letter was written.
- Add by + the doer only if it is useful information. … by Ali.
Afsona painted this picture. → This picture was painted by Afsona.
Bu rasmni Afsona chizgan. → Bu rasm Afsona tomonidan chizilgan.
Keep by here — the artist is exactly the interesting part.
5. Not every verb can be passive
Here is a rule that saves you from strange sentences. A verb can only go into the passive if it has an object — something that receives the action. Verbs like sleep, arrive, happen, come, go, fall, die, live have no object, so they have no passive form at all.
The accident was happened yesterday.
The accident happened yesterday.
He was arrived at six o'clock.
He arrived at six o'clock.
✓ They built the bridge. → The bridge was built.
(built what? → has an object)
✗ The bridge fell. → The bridge was fallen. (fell what? → no
object)
Koʻprikni qurishdi → Koʻprik qurildi. — Koʻprik qulab tushdi (majhul shakli yoʻq).
6. Common mistakes
English is speak in many countries.
English is spoken in many countries. (V3, not V1)
The house built in 1890.
The house was built in 1890. (the "be" is missing)
My bag was stole yesterday.
My bag was stolen yesterday.
The letters was sent last week.
The letters were sent last week.
The window was broken by somebody.
The window was broken. (drop the useless "by somebody")
Practice
1 Make it passive: They sell fresh bread here every morning.
Show answer
Fresh bread is sold here every morning.
Present tense, singular subject → is + V3.
2 Make it passive: Somebody stole my wallet on the bus.
Show answer
My wallet was stolen on the bus.
Drop somebody — that is exactly why the passive exists here.
3 Correct it: These carpets are make in Bukhara.
Show answer
These carpets are made in Bukhara.
After be always comes the third form, never the base form.
4 Should you keep the by-phrase? The Registan was designed by Ulugh Beg's architects.
Show answer
Yes — the architects are interesting, important information. Compare "The floor was cleaned by a cleaner", where the phrase adds nothing.
5 Make it active: The exam results are announced in July.
Show answer
The school announces the exam results in July.
You have to invent a doer — which shows why the passive was convenient in the first place.
Key words — Kalit soʻzlar
- Passive voicemajhul nisbat
- Active voiceaniq nisbat
- The doer / agentbajaruvchi
- Receiverqabul qiluvchi
- To deliveryetkazib bermoq
- To announceeʼlon qilmoq
- To arresthibsga olmoq
- To grow (crops)yetishtirmoq
- To designloyihalashtirmoq
- Wallethamyon
🎯 Remember this
- be + V3 — and be carries the tense, not the V3.
- Present: am/is/are + V3 · Past: was/were + V3.
- Use it when the doer is unknown, obvious, unimportant, or in formal writing.
- The object of the active sentence becomes the subject of the passive one.
- Add by only when the doer is worth mentioning.