Junior English: Passive Voice Tutor Prep Guide | Be plus Past Participle and Four Tenses

2026-11-12

Tutor lesson-prep guides · Junior Secondary English

Students know the passive is be plus a past participle, then meet a tense and write is for everything, so were built and has been sold collapse into is build. This lesson splits the passive into two slots: be carries the tense, the participle carries the action. Fill them separately and the tense cannot collapse.

Objectives — Students can: (1) write the passive as be plus past participle and explain that be carries the tense while the participle stays fixed; (2) form the passive correctly in the present simple, past simple, present perfect and future; (3) decide whether a sentence should be passive and explain when a by phrase stays 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 write?	Written, and irregular verbs need separate learning
Subject role	What role does the subject play in a passive sentence?	It receives the action, it does not perform it
Transitive verbs	Can an intransitive verb be passive?	No, because there is no object to become the subject

02 Lesson flow (60 minutes)

Time	Stage	Tutor does	Student does
0-6 min	Opening contrast	Say the same event in active and passive	Write an answer now, compare at the end
6-18 min	The frame	Be plus past participle, be carries the tense	Turn five active sentences into passive
18-34 min	Four tenses	is done, was done, has been done, will be done	Write one sentence in four tenses
34-46 min	When to use it	Agent unknown, unimportant or unwanted	Judge four sentences for passives
46-56 min	By phrases and limits	Keep by only when needed, intransitive verbs fail	Delete the empty by phrases
56-60 min	Exit check	Collect two questions, mark at once	Complete independently

03 Teaching script (read it out)

Scene 1: The frame: be carries the tense, the participle carries the action

The passive has one skeleton: be plus past participle. Be changes, so the tense changes; the participle never changes, because it only names the action. Example: The bridge was built in 1998, where was marks the past and built marks building. Fix the order and students stop losing tenses. Then teach the three conversion steps: move the object to the subject slot, change the verb to be plus participle, and put the old subject after by or drop it.

Students do: convert five active sentences into the passive, circling be first and writing the participle second.

Scene 2: Four tenses: one verb written four ways

S3 needs four tenses: present simple is done, past simple was done, present perfect has been done and future will be done. Example: The report is written every term, was written last week, has been written already, and will be written tomorrow, where the participle stays written every time while be does the work. Flag two slots that students drop: the present perfect needs both has been, and the future needs will be, never will been. Put the four on the board and let students change only the be part, then read them aloud, because the ear catches the error.

Students do: write the same verb in all four passive tenses and label each tense.

Scene 3: When the passive is right, and how to handle by

The passive exists because the doer is unknown, unimportant or deliberately hidden, which is why news writing leans on it: Three people were arrested, where who arrested them does not matter. Keep the by phrase only when the doer matters: The song was written by a student keeps it because the writer is the point. Train one decision: if the sentence still works without the by phrase, usually delete it, and if deleting it leaves the reader asking who did it, keep it. Close with the intransitive limit: happen, arrive and sleep take no object, so they have no passive, and was happened is always wrong.

Students do: decide whether four sentences should be passive, and give the reason for each.

04 Question types and worked steps

Type	Example	Steps	Answer
Conversion	Change an active sentence into the passive	Object to subject, verb to be plus participle, old subject to by or gone	Match the be tense to the original sentence
Tense gap fill	Fill passives in different tenses in one passage	Set the tense first, write be, then the participle	Never write has been or will be with one word missing
Multiple choice	Choose the correct passive form	Eliminate be plus base form options first, then compare tenses	Options with intransitive verbs are always wrong
Error correction	Find five passive errors in a paragraph	Check be, then the participle, then whether the verb is transitive	Read the corrected text again for subject-verb agreement

Sanity check (teach this): Sanity check: the lesson uses one skeleton, be plus past participle, and all four tenses come from changing be while the participle stays put, so one rule carries the whole chapter; every example uses the same verb four times so students change one slot at a time; conversion tasks must label be and the participle, which lets the tutor see instantly whether the slip was tense or participle; the lesson ends with the question does this verb take an object, which blocks the intransitive trap.

05 Independent practice (3 questions)

Question	Answer	What to watch
Four tenses	One verb in four passive tenses	Check that has been and will be are complete
Conversion	Five active sentences into passive	Check that be matches the original tense
Cutting by	Two of four by phrases should go	Check that the reason is stated

06 Common mistakes and what to say

Mistake	Student writes	Say this
Writing half of the passive	Writing The house is build.	Be alone is not a passive; the past participle has to be there too.
Dropping been in the present perfect	Writing The work has finished.	The present perfect passive is has been plus the participle. Missing been turns it back into the active.
Forcing intransitive verbs passive	Writing The accident was happened.	Happen takes no object, so it cannot be made passive. Ask whether the verb has an object.
Adding empty by phrases	Writing by someone in every sentence	If the doer does not matter, delete the phrase; by someone says nothing.

07 Homework (paper, section and question numbers)

Junior English chapter index — All chapters for the subject
Prep guide master index — Similar chapters in other subjects
Redo this chapter — Practice questions 2, 4 and 6: four tenses, conversion, cutting by phrases

08 Exit check (last 5 minutes)

Question	Answer	Decision
Formula	Be plus past participle, be carries the tense	Not stating it means replay scene two
Four tenses	is, was, has been, will be plus participle	A missing been or be means replay scene three
When to use	Agent unknown, unimportant or hidden	No reason means replay scene four

09 Tutor FAQ

Should students learn ways to show the agent other than by?

Not at S3. This level only needs the by phrase and omission, and other structures can wait until S4.

Must every irregular participle be memorised?

Not all, but the thirty commonest must be secure, because a wrong participle loses the whole question.

Does the passive belong in speech?

It can appear, though conversation prefers the active. Keep the lesson on written and news contexts so students learn when it earns its place.

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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.