Present simple passive

“The tickets are sold online.” We care about the tickets and how people can buy them; the seller is not important.

Active and passive focus

In an active sentence, the subject does the action: The staff sell tickets online. In a passive sentence, the thing affected by the action becomes the subject: Tickets are sold online.

Use the present simple passive for regular processes, rules and general facts when the agent is unknown, obvious or less important.

• The rooms are cleaned every day.
• English is spoken in many countries.
• The forms are checked before the interview.

Form

Use am/is/are + past participle:

Negatives and questions use the same be verb: The rooms aren’t cleaned on Sundays. Are the forms checked today?

The past participle may be regular (checked) or irregular (written, made, sent). It is not the past simple form after be: The letters are wrote → The letters are written.

Change the focus step by step

Take The hotel staff clean the rooms every morning. If your reader wants to know about the rooms, begin with them:

1. Choose the receiver of the cleaning: the rooms.
2. Choose are, because the new subject is plural.
3. Add the participle cleaned.
4. Keep the time phrase: every morning.

The rooms are cleaned every morning.

The event and its time have not changed. The information at the beginning has changed from the workers to the rooms.

With an irregular verb, learn the participle: write → written, make → made, send → sent, grow → grown. A past-simple form is not always the right form after be: is written, not is wrote.

The new subject decides is or are

In The company sends the emails, company is singular. In The emails are sent, emails is plural. Do not copy the agreement from the old subject.

For questions, move be before the subject: Are the rooms cleaned daily? For negatives, put not after it: The rooms aren't cleaned on Sundays. You do not need do/does.

Mention the agent only when useful

Add by + agent if the person or group doing the action matters: The meals are prepared by local chefs. If the agent is obvious or irrelevant, leave it out: The meals are prepared every morning.

Describe a process your reader can follow

The apples are washed and sorted. They are packed in boxes. Each box is labelled, and the boxes are sent to shops.

The paragraph follows the product through the process. Repeating workers or machines would often add little, so the passive is useful.

The present simple passive commonly describes routines. The road is repaired every spring is a recurring process. The road is being repaired today describes an activity in progress, using a continuous passive that you will study more fully at B2.

A past participle does not mean past time by itself

In Coffee is grown in this region, grown is a participle, but is makes the sentence present. Coffee was grown there fifty years ago uses was for past time. Choose the form of be from the time you mean.

An adjective can also follow be: The door is open describes its state. The door is opened at nine describes a regular action. The door is closed can describe a state or a passive event depending on context; a phrase such as by the caretaker at nine makes the action clear.

Not every verb can form an ordinary passive. The guests arrive at six is active and has no object to become a passive subject. Do not write The guests are arrived.

Use an active sentence when the person doing the action matters: Our volunteers clean the beach every week highlights their contribution. Use The beach is cleaned every week when your topic is the beach and its maintenance. The choice should help your reader follow the important information.

Sources and further reading

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