Complex passive chains

A passive chain can become long when a sentence combines time, possibility, continuation and voice: The files may have been being reviewed. The sequence is grammatical, but it is also heavy. Learn how the pieces fit together, then decide whether the reader needs every layer.

Build the chain from the outside in

Each auxiliary has a job, and the order is fixed:

modal + have + been + being + past participle

For example:

The records may have been being reviewed when the server failed.

May expresses possibility, have places the review before a later reference point, been carries the passive, and being marks an ongoing process. The final past participle names the action.

A chain does not need every piece:

• is reviewed — present passive
• was being reviewed — past progressive passive
• has been reviewed — present perfect passive
• may be reviewed — modal passive
• may have been reviewed — modal + perfect + passive
• may have been being reviewed — modal + perfect + progressive + passive

The final form after passive be is a past participle: reviewed, recorded, withheld. Do not use the base form or the -ing form there.

Put the time relation in the right layer

Compare these statements:

The application must be reconsidered.
The application must have been reconsidered.

The first expresses an obligation now or in the future. The second is an inference or expectation about an earlier action. The perfect infinitive is what moves the event into the past; the modal itself does not change form.

Passive reporting structures can make the evidence more prominent than the reporter:

The original estimate is believed to have been overstated.
The samples are expected to be analysed independently.

The subject of the main clause is the thing reported about. The infinitive describes what happened, is happening or may happen to it.

Prefer clarity to auxiliary stacking

May have been being monitored is possible, but it can slow the reader down. If the ongoing nature is not important, use may have been monitored. If the agent matters, an active sentence may be clearer: The team may have monitored the files.

Keep a long chain only when each layer contributes a real distinction. More auxiliaries do not automatically make a sentence more precise.

Common mistakes

• The file may been altered. Add have: may have been altered.
• The area has being monitored. Use has been monitored or is being monitored, depending on the time meaning.
• The draft appears to been overlooked. Use appears to have been overlooked.
• The motion was being discuss. The passive participle is discussed.
• The report must have wrote by the team. Use must have been written.

Quick check

Choose the chain that matches each meaning.

1. A rule requires a decision now: The application ___ reviewed.
2. We infer that someone completed the review earlier: The application must ___ reviewed.
3. The review was in progress at the time the server failed: The files ___ reviewed when the server failed.

Answers: must be; have been; were being. In the last sentence, being reviewed is passive and progressive. Ask whether that extra progressive meaning is genuinely needed before using an even longer chain such as may have been being reviewed.

Build and interpret a long passive one decision at a time

Instead of memorising a string of auxiliaries, decide what the sentence needs to express. Start with the event and add only the meanings that matter:

1. Voice: Is the subject receiving the action? If so, use be + past participle.
2. Time or viewpoint: Is the event earlier than another point? Add perfect have. Is it in progress at that point? Add progressive be + -ing.
3. Stance: Is the event possible, necessary, expected or inferred? Put a modal at the beginning.

For example, suppose the main claim is that someone is reviewing the records. The passive event is the records are being reviewed. To place that process before a past reference point, use the records had been being reviewed. To express uncertainty about that earlier process, add a modal: the records may have been being reviewed. It is possible, but it asks the reader to process several layers at once.

The last form is grammatically well formed, yet often better expressed as The team may have been reviewing the records when the server failed. If the agent is unknown or unimportant, The records may have been under review is another way to avoid a heavy verb phrase.

Separate passive reporting from a passive chain

Reporting verbs such as believe, expect, report, say can introduce a passive reporting pattern:

The samples are expected to have been analysed independently.

The samples are the topic; to have been analysed places the analysis before the expectation or report. Compare The samples are expected to be analysed: the analysis is still expected to happen. The perfect infinitive changes the time relation, not the certainty.

A by-phrase names the agent. Include it only when the agent is new or useful: The novel was written by X (the agent matters); The meeting was held by the committee may be less direct than The committee held the meeting. Passive voice is not automatically more formal or objective.

Edit for the reader

If a sentence feels overloaded, temporarily write an active version. Then decide whether the subject, agent or information order justifies returning to the passive. Compare:

The file may have been being examined by the auditors when the system shut down.
The auditors may have been examining the file when the system shut down.

The active version is easier if the auditors are known and relevant. If the file is the topic of the surrounding paragraph, passive may still be the better choice; clarity depends on context, not a blanket ban on passive forms.

Guided practice

1. A completed analysis is possible, but it happened before the current report: The data may ___ independently.
2. The team was in the middle of checking the sample at 10:00; foreground the sample.
3. Improve the sentence if the agent matters: The proposal is believed to have been revised.
4. Choose a time-consistent form: The documents are expected to arrive tomorrow / have arrived yesterday.

Answers and reasoning

1. have been analysed. May takes base-form have; perfect marks the earlier event; been analysed is passive.
2. The sample was being checked by the team at 10:00. The past progressive passive expresses an action in progress at a past time.
3. The team is believed to have revised the proposal (active, if the team is relevant) or The proposal is believed to have been revised by the team (passive, if the proposal is the topic).
4. Are expected to arrive tomorrow looks forward. For an expectation held at an earlier point, say The documents were expected to have arrived by yesterday.

Know which verbs can become passive

A passive normally needs a transitive verb: there must be something that can receive the action. The committee reviewed the files becomes The files were reviewed because review has an object. A verb such as arrive has no direct object, so the station was arrived is not the ordinary passive. Some prepositional verbs do allow a passive when the object of the preposition becomes the topic: The proposal was referred to; The issue has been dealt with.

Active and passive can present different information

Choose the passive when the receiver is already the paragraph’s topic, when the agent is unknown, or when the process matters more than who performed it:

The instrument was calibrated before each trial.

If the agent matters, name it or use an active clause:

The instrument was calibrated by the supplier.
The supplier calibrated the instrument.

Long chains do not become clearer simply because they hide the agent. In a safety procedure or accountability report, the active subject may be essential. Passive reporting patterns can also obscure responsibility, so make a deliberate choice about whether the agent belongs in the sentence.

Further reading

• Cambridge Dictionary: passive forms
• Cambridge Dictionary: passives with and without an agent