Page 179 - Basic English Usage

181 238 — 239

3 To make passive verb forms, we use the auxiliary be. .
. For details, see next section.

> For information about the use of get as a passive auxiliary, see 143.3.
For verbs with two objects (for example give) in passive structures, see 356.4.
For prepositions at the end of passive clauses (for example He’s been written to),
see 257.1C.

238 passive verb forms

We make passive verb forms with the different tenses of be, followed by
the past participle (= pp).

TENSE STRUCTURE EXAMPLE
simple present am/are/is + pp English is spoken here.
present amare/is being + pp Excuse the mess: the
progressive house is being painted.
simple past was/were + pp | wasn’t invited, but |
went anyway.
past was/were being + pp [felt as if! was being
progressive watched.
present perfect have/has been + pp Has Mary been told?
past perfect had been + pp i knew why | had been
chosen.
future willbe + pp You'll be told when the
time comes.
future perfect will have been + pp Everything will have
been done by Tuesday.
‘going to’ going to be + pp Who's going to be
invited?

Future progressive passives and perfect progressive passives (will be
being + pp and has been being + pp) are very unusual.
Passive tenses follow the same rules as active tenses. Look in the index
to see where to find information about the use of the present
progressive, present perfect, etc.

239 past tense with present or future meaning

A past tense does not always have a past meaning. In some kinds of
sentence we use verbs like / had, you went or / was wondering to talk
about the present or future.