Past Simple Passive
Passive Use:
The same as mentioned before with the other passive verb forms, we use the passive form when the focus is on the object of the phrase and not the subject. It is often used in journalistic English, when we do not know who caused the action or it isn’t important. Because it’s the past, we use the auxiliary verb in the past.
Active: bad driving caused accidents.
Passive: accidents were caused by bad driving.
According to the tense we are using we change the auxiliary of the verb to be Ex: Accidents were caused by bad driving Past.
Form
Auxiliary of the verb to be in the past was/were + past participle
Affirmative form
| Active form | Passive form |
|---|---|
| I cleaned the house every day. | The house was cleaned everyday |
| Triumph made motorcycles. | Motorcycles were made by Triumph. |
Negative form
| Active form | Passive form |
|---|---|
| I didn’t clean the house every day. | The house wasn’t cleaned everyday |
| Triumph didn’t make motorcycles. | Motorcycles weren’t made by Triumph. |
Interogative form
| Active form | Passsive form |
|---|---|
| Did I clean the house every day? | Was the house cleaned every day? |
| Did Triumph make motorcycles? | Were motorcycles made by Triumph? |
Note important! We can only form a passive sentence from an active sentence when there is an object in the active sentence.