Turning an active sentence into a passive one is usually a simple flip: the object moves to the front, the verb becomes be + past participle, and the original subject either moves behind by or disappears. The awkward cases sit elsewhere — in verbs with two objects, verbs glued to particles, and verbs that refuse to flip at all.
This lesson walks through those corners. The basic mechanics of forming the passive sit in the earlier lessons of this chapter.
The standard flip
Start with a subject, a verb, and one object. The object becomes the new subject, the verb takes on a form of be, and the agent moves to the end (or disappears entirely).
The tense of be matches the tense of the original verb. Everything else follows from that.
Verbs with two objects
Some verbs take two objects — one for a person (the indirect object) and one for a thing (the direct object). Give, tell, offer, send, show, lend, teach, write, pay, bring, promise are the common ones. Either object can become the subject of the passive, which means each active sentence has two valid passive versions.
The version with the person as subject is the more natural and more frequent choice in English. The version with the thing as subject keeps the preposition to (or for) before the person.
More pairs, same pattern:
Pick the person-as-subject version unless the thing is genuinely the focus. "The job was offered to Daniel" works when the job is what the reader already knows about; "Daniel was offered the job" works in almost every other context.
Phrasal verbs
A phrasal verb is a verb plus a particle that together carry one meaning (call off, look after, take care of, put off, bring up). In the passive, the particle stays attached to the verb and moves with it to the front of the sentence.
Three-word phrasal verbs behave the same way — both extra words stay put.
Verbs with an obligatory preposition
Some verbs always travel with a specific preposition: depend on, look at, listen to, refer to, deal with, write about, laugh at. In the passive, the preposition sits directly after the past participle, with no object between them.
The dangling preposition at the end looks odd at first but is completely standard.
Questions and imperatives
Questions and commands also have passive forms. They are less frequent than passive statements but follow the same rules.
For imperatives, a modal passive (must be locked, should be sent) is the natural-sounding version. The literal "Let X be done" construction is older and mostly found in formal or ceremonial contexts.
When the flip is not possible
Not every active sentence has a passive version. Two groups of verbs resist it.
Intransitive verbs
Verbs that don't take an object have nothing to move to the subject position — so they have no passive. Arrive, happen, die, sleep, exist, come, go, fall, rise, wait, cry all work this way.
(Whether a verb is transitive or intransitive is a broader topic covered separately.)
Stative verbs of possession and measurement
Have in the sense of owning, and the verbs resemble, fit, suit, cost, weigh, contain, lack, equal, describe states rather than actions. States don't transfer onto someone, so passive forms sound wrong even when the sentence has an object.
A few of these verbs do have passive uses in non-stative senses (have as in have a meeting held, have the window broken is a causative, covered separately). The rule here applies only to the stative meaning.
Common mistakes
Dropped particle in phrasal verbs
Two-object confusion
Passive with intransitive verbs
Passive with stative verbs
Missing preposition after obligatory-preposition verbs