Passive Voice Tense Practice: Keep the Time, Change the Focus

“The mechanic is repairing the bike” becomes “The bike is being repaired by the mechanic.” Write “The bike has been repaired” instead, and you've moved from work in progress to a completed repair. The participle repaired is correct in both sentences. The helping verbs tell different stories.

This passive voice tense practice is for that particular mistake: choosing the right participle while losing the original sentence's time or meaning. Follow a small repair workshop's job records, build an answer with the five-column audit, then try ten transformations and one sentence that can't become passive.

Move the focus without moving the event

In “Lea repairs the bike,” Lea is the subject and does the action. The bike is the object and receives it. In the passive, the receiver becomes the subject: “The bike is repaired by Lea.” The British Council's passive voice lesson explains this change of focus and the common passive forms.

The basic pattern is a form of be + past participle. Keep the original tense and aspect: its simple, continuous, or perfect structure. Changing voice doesn't require a tense shift. A present-continuous active sentence needs a present-continuous passive sentence; it doesn't become past tense because you use a past participle.

The word repaired stays the same across the passive forms below. The auxiliary chain—the helping verbs before it—carries the changes in time, aspect, and agreement.

If choosing wrote or written is still the difficult part, start with past simple vs past participle. Here, the task is building the whole verb phrase around that participle.

Read the workshop's event ledger

These are separate entries in a fictional repair workshop's records. Each passive report must preserve what its active report says.

Entry	Active report	Passive report
Routine	The technicians inspect every brake on Mondays.	Every brake is inspected by the technicians on Mondays.
Work in progress now	Lea is repairing the blue bike now.	The blue bike is being repaired by Lea now.
Completed repair, relevant now	Sam has repaired the red bike.	The red bike has been repaired by Sam.
Work completed before another past event	Nora had replaced the wheel before the owner called.	The wheel had been replaced by Nora before the owner called.
Future job	Lea will test the green bike tomorrow.	The green bike will be tested by Lea tomorrow.

The first row also changes agreement. The technicians is plural, but the new subject, every brake, is singular, so the passive needs is. Don't copy the old subject's number into the new verb.

The fourth row keeps two events in order: the wheel replacement was complete before the call. Changing had been replaced to was being replaced would describe work in progress, losing that statement of completion. For more practice with this timeline, see past perfect vs past simple.

Being vs been: build from the original verb phrase

For the forms used here, continuous passives contain being, while perfect passives contain been. Both are forms of be. Neither replaces the main verb's past participle. Cambridge's passive forms reference sets out these auxiliary patterns.

Original structure	Passive structure	Example verb phrase
Present simple	am/is/are + participle	is repaired
Present continuous	am/is/are being + participle	is being repaired
Past simple	was/were + participle	was repaired
Past continuous	was/were being + participle	was being repaired
Present perfect	has/have been + participle	has been repaired
Past perfect	had been + participle	had been repaired
Future with will	will be + participle	will be repaired

Compare is repairing → is being repaired with has repaired → has been repaired. “Is been repaired” fits neither pattern. “Has being repaired” mixes them.

With a negative, put not after the first helping verb: is not being repaired, has not been repaired, will not be repaired. In simple active negatives, doesn't repair becomes isn't repaired, and didn't repair becomes wasn't repaired, when the new subject is singular. The passive form of be takes over the tense and negative structure; do disappears.

Audit five things before accepting an answer

Start with “Sam has not tested the two bells yet.” Find the object, the two bells, and move it to the front. The original verb phrase, has not tested, is negative present perfect, so build the same structure in the passive: have not been tested. Use have because the bells are plural. Add by Sam and keep yet:

The two bells have not been tested by Sam yet.

Now record those decisions in one audit row. The last column catches answers that look grammatical but report a different event.

Receiver → new subject	Original tense/aspect	Passive verb	Retained agent	Preserved time/negation
the blue bike	Present continuous	is being repaired	by Lea	now; affirmative
the two bells	Present perfect	have not been tested	by Sam	yet; negative

For your own answers, fill all five columns before checking the key. If the verb phrase looks right but you've dropped not or yet, the transformation still needs fixing.

Keep the named actor in the exercises below. “The bike was repaired” is a valid sentence, but it leaves out information from “Lea repaired the bike.” For this worksheet, preserving the supplied information means keeping by Lea.

In ordinary writing, you can omit an agent when they're unknown, obvious, or unimportant. Cambridge's guide to passives with and without an agent explains that choice. Cambridge’s reference for by distinguishes the doer from a tool: a wheel can be removed by Nora, with a wrench. Those phrases answer different questions.

Ten active-to-passive exercises, plus a boundary check

Write the complete passive sentence before reading the answers. Keep every named agent, time expression, and negative. Move the object of the main clause into subject position; leave any when or before clause unchanged. Contractions and sensible changes in word order are fine.

1. The technicians clean the workbench every evening.
2. Nora checks the two locks each morning.
3. The technicians are replacing the chain now.
4. Lea has repaired the two scooters already.
5. Sam had packed the tools before the van arrived.
6. Nora will collect the blue bike tomorrow.
7. Lea does not test the bells on Sundays.
8. The technicians did not replace the tyre yesterday.
9. Sam was painting the frame when the owner called.
10. Nora removed the wheel with a wrench this morning.
11. Boundary check: “The spare parts arrived yesterday.” Can you make this sentence passive without adding an action or changing the verb?

Answers and the reason for each

1. The workbench is cleaned by the technicians every evening. Present simple stays present simple. The new subject is singular, so use is, even though the technicians is plural. Keep every evening to preserve the routine.
2. The two locks are checked by Nora each morning. The plural receiver becomes the subject, so checks becomes are checked. “The two locks is checked” has the right participle but the wrong agreement.
3. The chain is being replaced by the technicians now. Present continuous stays continuous. The singular chain needs is, followed by being replaced. “Has been replaced” would report a completed replacement instead of work in progress.
4. The two scooters have already been repaired by Lea. Present perfect stays present perfect. The new plural subject needs have, although the active used has with Lea. Already can move within the verb phrase; it still reports that the repair is complete.
5. The tools had been packed by Sam before the van arrived. Had been packed preserves the past perfect and the earlier completed action. The van's arrival remains past simple in its own clause.
6. The blue bike will be collected by Nora tomorrow. Keep will, add be, and use the participle collected. “Will being collected” is incorrect; will takes the base form be here.
7. The bells are not tested by Lea on Sundays. This remains a negative present-simple statement about a routine. The plural subject takes are not. Leaving out not reverses the meaning; keeping does not would produce the wrong passive structure.
8. The tyre was not replaced by the technicians yesterday. Past simple stays past simple, with was not for the singular tyre. “Had not been replaced” introduces a past-perfect structure that the original didn't use.
9. The frame was being painted by Sam when the owner called. Was being painted preserves work in progress at the time of the call. “Was painted” loses that continuous aspect; “had been painted” presents the painting as earlier and completed.
10. The wheel was removed by Nora with a wrench this morning. This is past simple with the singular subject the wheel. Nora remains the agent after by; the wrench remains the tool after with. “By a wrench” doesn't preserve the supplied roles.
11. No passive transformation is available. Arrived has no object here. The spare parts are already the subject; there's no object to move into that position. “The spare parts were arrived” is incorrect. “The spare parts were delivered” is grammatical, but it introduces a different verb and a delivery action. Cambridge's guide to typical passive errors explains why intransitive verbs don't form passives.

Keep the mistake, then change the example

Mark an answer correct only after the five audit columns match. A correct participle is one part of the answer. Missing being, changing have to has, or dropping not each deserves a different correction.

Make a card for a choice you actually missed, rather than copying the whole reference table:

What went wrong	Card front	Card back
Changed progress into completion	Keep the meaning: “Sam is testing the bell now.” → “The bell ___ by Sam now.”	is being tested — present continuous passive; the test is in progress.
Kept agreement with the old subject	Keep the meaning: “Nora has checked the locks.” → “The locks ___ by Nora.”	have been checked — present perfect; locks is plural.
Tried to transform an intransitive verb	Can “The mechanic arrived at noon” become passive with arrive? Explain.	No. Arrive has no object here, so there's no object to make the passive subject.

The cloze vs basic flashcards guide can help you choose between a sentence blank and a direct explanation prompt. Keep the original active sentence on the front when the skill you're practicing is preserving its meaning.

After correcting a card, try a new receiver: change the bell to the brakes, for example. “The brakes are being tested by Sam now” makes you choose agreement again while keeping the action in progress. That's the useful check: you can rebuild the sentence when one part changes.

Drafted with AI assistance using the linked British Council and Cambridge grammar references. The workshop records, exercises, and audit are original teaching examples.