Passive voice

Some features of the passive voice:

The passive auxiliary:

There is only one passive auxiliary. This is the auxiliary be.

The form of the passive auxiliary:

The passive auxiliary be has many forms, depending on the auxilary preceding it in the sentence. As mentioned before, the auxiliaries always come in one particular order: modal - perfect - progressive - passive. Since the passive auxiliary can only be preceded by a modal auxiliary, a perfect auxiliary, a progressive auxiliary, or no auxiliary at all, be can take precisely four shapes. It can either be in its tensed form (preceded by no auxiliary at all), in its non-finite form (preceded by a modal), in its past participle form (preceded by a perfect auxiliary), or in its progressive participle form (preceded by a progressive auxiliary):

The form of the following verb:

The verb following a passive auxiliary always appears in its past participle form.. As we´ve already seen at the perfect aspect, this form is made up from the verb's stem + -ed, except for the irregular verbs. Compare the example sentences already given on the Auxiliaries page and notice the verbs following the modals in their past participle form: