The Passive voice

How to make the Passive in English

We make the passive by putting the verb 'to be' into whatever tense we need and then adding the past participle. For regular verbs, we make the past participle by adding 'ed' to the infinitive. So play becomes played. 

Tense

Active

Passive

present simple

I make a cake.

A cake is made (by me).

present continuous

I am making a cake.

A cake is being made (by me).

past simple

I made a cake.

A cake was made (by me).

past continuous

I was making a cake.

A cake was being made (by me).

present perfect

I have made a cake.

A cake has been made (by me).

pres. perf. continuous

I have been making a cake.

A cake has been being made (by me).

past perfect

I had made a cake.

A cake had been made (by me).

future simple

I will make a cake.

A cake will be made (by me).

future perfect

I will have made a cake.

A cake will have been made (by me).

Passive Verb Formation

The passive forms of a verb are created by combining a form of the "to be verb" with the past participle of the main verb.The passive can be used, also, in various tenses. Let's take a look at the passive forms of "design."

Tense	Subject	Auxiliary		Past Participle
		Singular	Plural
Present	The car/cars	is	are	designed.
Present perfect	The car/cars	has been	have been	designed.
Past	The car/cars	was	were	designed.
Past perfect	The car/cars	had been	had been	designed.
Future	The car/cars	will be	will be	designed.
Future perfect	The car/cars	will have been	will have been	designed.
Present progressive	The car/cars	is being	are being	designed.
Past progressive	The car/cars	was being	were being	designed.