Past simple passive

“The bridge was built in 1932.” The sentence tells us what happened to the bridge. We may not know who built it.

What changes from the active?

Active: The company built the bridge in 1932.
Passive: The bridge was built in 1932.

The object of the active sentence, the bridge, becomes the subject of the passive sentence. Use the past passive when that person or thing is the topic, or when the agent is unknown or unimportant.

Form

Use was/were + past participle:

• The letter was sent yesterday.
• The windows were repaired last week.
• The package wasn’t delivered on Monday.
• Were the invitations printed in time?

Choose was with I/he/she/it and singular nouns, and were with you/we/they and plural nouns. You takes were even for one person. After it, use the past participle: was written, not was wrote.

Preserve the past event while changing the subject

Start with A mechanic repaired my bike yesterday. The repair happened in the past. To make the bike the topic:

My bike was repaired yesterday.

My bike receives the action. Was expresses past time and agrees with the singular subject. Repaired is the participle.

The new subject decides was/were. They is plural in the active sentence, but Leo needs was in the passive.

Make questions and negatives with be

Was the parcel delivered? asks about a past delivery. The parcel wasn't delivered makes it negative. A short answer is Yes, it was or No, it wasn't.

Do not add did to these passive patterns: Did the parcel was delivered? is incorrect. Compare the active question Did they deliver the parcel? It uses did + base verb because it has a different verb structure.

With irregular verbs, distinguish past form from participle: write → wrote → written; steal → stole → stolen; take → took → taken. The passive needs the last form: was written, was stolen, was taken.

When is by useful?

You may add by + agent: The novel was written by Mary Shelley. Here the writer matters. In My bike was stolen, the thief may be unknown, so a by phrase is unnecessary.

Compare The police arrested the suspect and The suspect was arrested by the police. Both describe the same event, but they begin with different information.

Past or present passive?

• The museum is closed every Monday. A regular present arrangement.
• The museum was closed last Monday. A specific past event or state.

Look at the time phrase and what the sentence means before choosing is/are or was/were.

Use the passive when describing a problem

My suitcase was damaged during the journey. Two wheels were broken, and the handle was bent. The problem was reported at the airport.

The suitcase and the problem remain the topic. You may not know who caused the damage. The passive lets you describe what happened without inventing an agent.

If responsibility matters, name it: The suitcase was damaged by the baggage-handling equipment. If you simply know where it happened, use a place phrase instead: at the airport. By identifies the agent or cause, not the location.

An action and a state can look similar

The shop was closed when we arrived may describe its state: it was not open. The shop was closed by the manager at six clearly describes the action of closing it.

Likewise, The window was broken can describe damage found at a past moment. A phrase such as during the storm provides the event context. The sentence's meaning matters more than deciding that every was + participle must describe exactly the same kind of event.

For a present routine, use is/are: The museum is cleaned every morning. For one completed past event, use was/were: The museum was cleaned yesterday. The participle cleaned stays unchanged.

Some verbs do not have an object that can become a passive subject. The accident happened yesterday cannot become The accident was happened yesterday. Similarly, The bus arrived late, not was arrived.

To revise a passive sentence, check three things: the receiver is now the subject, was/were agrees with it, and the main action is a participle. The invitations were sent last week satisfies all three.

Sources and further reading

• British Council LearnEnglish: Passives
• Cambridge Dictionary: Passive forms