Passives Summary

ACTIVE PASSIVE
Present Simple Somebody cleans this room every day. This room is cleaned every day.
Past Simple Somebody cleaned this room yesterday. This room was cleaned yesterday.
Present Continuous Somebody is cleaning the room at the moment. The room is being cleaned at the moment.
Past Continuous Somebody was cleaning the room when I arrived. The room was being cleaned when I arrived.
Infinitive Somebody will clean the room later. The room will be cleaned later.
The situation is serious. Something must be done.
A mystery is something that can’t be explained.
The music was very loud. It could be heard from a long
way away.
A new supermarket is going to be built.
Please go away. I want to be left alone.
Perfect Infinitive Somebody should have cleaned the room. The room should have been cleaned.
I haven’t received the letter yet. It might have been
sent to the wrong address.
If you hadn’t left the car unlocked, it wouldn’t have
been stolen.
There were some problems at first, but they seem to
have been solved.
Present Perfect The room looks nice. Somebody has cleaned it. The room looks nice. It has been cleaned.
Past Perfect The room looked nice. Somebody had cleaned it. The room looked nice. It had been cleaned.
The agent – by
The bank was robbed (by robbers.)
A gold watch was found in the park (by somebody.)
Two hundred people are employed by the company.