Primary English | Passive voice be plus past participle - tutor prep guide | Three tenses, four-step rewrite and four common errors

Primary English | Passive voice be plus past participle – tutor prep guide | Three tenses, four-step rewrite and four common errors

2026-11-04

Tutor lesson-prep guides · Primary English

“The window is break by someone” is usually not a tense problem; the past participle is missing. The passive has one frame, be plus past participle, and only be changes with the tense.

Objectives — Students can: (1) recognise the be plus past participle frame and change be correctly in the present, past and present perfect; (2) rewrite an active sentence in four steps, starting from the object; (3) decide when the person after by is worth naming and when it goes.

01 Prerequisites (3-minute check)

If any of these fails, fix it before the lesson starts.

Skill	Quick check	Pass mark
Past participles	What is the past participle of break?	broken
Who does, who receives	In “the teacher marked the essays”, what receives the action?	The essays
Be verbs	Which be verb goes with a singular subject?	is in the present, was in the past

02 Lesson flow (60 minutes)

Time	Stage	Tutor does	Student does
0-6 min	Opening error	Write The window is break, ask what is wrong	Circle break
6-18 min	Be plus participle	Three tenses, only be changes	Same sentence in three tenses
18-30 min	Four-step rewrite	Move the object step by step on the board	Copy one item and write the steps
30-40 min	Keeping or dropping by	Three items drop, two keep, each with a reason	Judge five sentences
40-52 min	Mixed practice	Active and passive together, reasons required	Two items alone
52-60 min	Exit check	Collect three items, mark at once	Work alone

03 Teaching script (read it out)

Scene 1: Three slots only: subject, be, past participle

The passive is three slots, not a long formula: subject (the thing acted on), be (changing with tense), past participle. Practise by rewriting one sentence three times: The room is cleaned. The room was cleaned. The room has been cleaned. Only be moves; the participle never does.
Because students watch is turn into was and then into has been, they stop treating tense as something attached to the main verb. Drill four irregular participles that drive most of the errors: break, write, eat, take.

Ask the student to put The room is cleaned into the past and the present perfect and name the word that changed.

Scene 2: Four steps, and the object moves first

The order cannot drift: (1) find the object that receives the action and move it to the front; (2) turn the verb into be plus past participle, keeping the original tense on be; (3) put the old subject after by; (4) ask whether that person matters, and delete by if not.
Most students start at step three, decide who to put after by, and move the wrong noun. Have them underline the object in the original first and write the four steps beside the answer, so any error is visible.

Ask the student to rewrite “The teacher marked the papers” in four steps and answer step four out loud.

Scene 3: Three cases where by disappears

Drop by when the doer is vague (someone, people), unknown, or obvious from context, as with by the teacher in a school sentence. Keep it for one reason only: the sentence exists to say who did it.
Contrast a pair: The window was broken. The window was broken by the boy next door. Both are correct; the difference is what the reader needs to know.

Ask the student to mark keep or drop on three sentences and give one reason each.

04 Question types and worked steps

Type	Example	Steps	Answer
Active to passive	Rewrite the whole sentence	Four steps starting from the object	Be must keep the original tense
Gap fill	Insert be or the participle	Fix the tense for be, then write the participle	Both slots must be right
Tense shift	Same sentence in three tenses	Change be only	has been, never has plus past tense
Editing item	Add what is missing	Read once and check for be and participle	A missing be is the commonest fault

Sanity check (teach this): Rationale: tense and verb form are taught separately because mixing them produces half-right forms such as is broke; by is decided by information focus rather than grammar so students have a usable standard; only four irregular participles are drilled so the lesson stays inside sixty minutes.

05 Independent practice (3 questions)

Question	Answer	What to watch
Three tenses	One sentence in three tenses	Check be moves and the participle does not
Four-step rewrite	Two active sentences converted with steps written	Check the object reached the front
Keeping or dropping by	Five sentences marked	Check a reason is given each time

06 Common mistakes and what to say

Mistake	Student writes	Say this
No be at all	The window is break by someone	“What comes after be? A past participle. So what is the third form of break?”
Past tense instead of participle	The cake was ate by Tom	“ate is the past tense. The passive needs eaten. Write it and read the sentence again.”
Subject pronoun after by	The song was sung by she	“By is a preposition, so it takes her, not she.”
Present perfect built wrongly	The work has did	“Has needs been plus the participle, three words, before it counts as a perfect tense.”

07 Homework (paper, section and question numbers)

P5 English practice paper with answers — Part 4, questions 1-4: active to passive
P6 English practice paper with answers — Part 3, questions 5-7: passive gap fill
Redo this chapter — Redo two four-step rewrites with the steps written beside the answers

08 Exit check (last 5 minutes)

Question	Answer	Decision
The passive frame	Subject, be, past participle	Cannot list three slots: back to act one
Be moves, participle stays	is, was, has been	Writing is broke: repeat act one
Dropping by	Vague, unknown or obvious means drop	Writing by every time: back to act three

09 Tutor FAQ

How many tenses does the passive need?

Present, past and present perfect cover P5 and P6; secondary school adds the rest.

They keep forgetting be. Any shortcut?

Insist on two slots every time: write be first, then the participle. Reading the sentence aloud exposes a missing be immediately.

School gap fills look different, do they?

Only on the surface. Ask for the tense to write be, then for the third form to write the participle. Two questions, whole item.

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A TutorZone lesson-prep guide. Written by the TutorZone team; questions and lesson flow are original and are not taken from any school or publisher material.