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Passive Voice – Direct & Indirect Questions
The passive
Tense form
All tenses and simple or continuous forms are possible, but some are more common than others:
Present simple passive


The parts are imported from Japan.

Present continuous passive


The road is being widened.

Will passive
•

The project will be completed next year.

Past simple passive
•

The drug was developed by a team of scientists.

Past continuous passive
•

The letters were found while the stones were being cleaned.

Present perfect passive
•

All work has been suspended until further notice.

Modal must/should
•

All doors must be kept/should be kept locked.

Modal can/could
•

The door can only be opened from the inside.

Why use the passive?
To place important information at the beginning of the sentence:
• A new bridge across the river was opened in 2006.
To describe a technical process impersonally:
• The water is then heated to 80° centigrade.
• Finally, they are cemented onto the teeth.
Without an agent, to avoid mentioning the person who performs the action, because this is obvious
from the context, or unimportant or very general:
•

Students are expected to attend all classes.
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•

A new chief executive has been appointed.

•

Her new book was well reviewed in the weekend papers.

Note that it may be clearer not to use the passive, and writers of scientific reports often use active
rather than passive forms in order to focus on the result.
The second example below may seem clearer:
• Lack of exercise is considered to be a contributory factor in heart disease.
• Researchers have concluded that lack of exercise is a contributory factor in heart disease.

Agent “by” and instrument “with”:
We can describe the instrument used when something was done using with instead of by:
• It was removed with the hand tools that can be seen at the top of the photo.
• The mountain was covered with snow

Verbs that cannot be passive:
Only transitive verbs (verbs with an object) can be made passive:
• They constructed the building in the 1980s.
• The building was constructed in the 1980s.
Some transitive verbs cannot be made passive, e.g. become, get, have, fit (be the right size) lack,
let, resemble, suit:
• That dress really suits you! (You are suited... is not possible)
• He resembles my brother (My brother is resembled... is not possible)

Intransitive verbs (verbs with no object) cannot be made passive, e.g. sleepy arrive:
• She slept late.
• The train arrived on time, for a change.

Direct & Indirect Questions
Direct Questions
Questions begin either with question words, or with an auxiliary verb. Note the positions of adverbs:
Present simple
• How (exactly) does it work?
• Do they live here?
Present continuous
• What is happening?
• Are they (really) leaving?
Past continuous
• What was he trying to do?
• Were you living there?
Present perfect simple
• Have you (ever) been there?
• Has it started?
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Present perfect continuous
• What have you been doing?
• Has he been waiting long?

Past perfect simple
• What had they discovered?
• Had they left?
•
Past perfect continuous
• What had he been doing?
• Had you been waiting?

Indirect Questions
Questions can be introduced by reporting verbs. In this case there is no question form, or question
mark. They are called ‘indirect’ or ‘reported’ questions. When introduced by a past tense verb,
reported questions follow tense rules for reported speech:
• Direct question:
‘What time is it?’
• Indirect question:
I wonder what time it is.
Questions can also be introduced by expressions formed from it + be + adjective or it + be +
adjective + infinitive:
• Direct question
‘Who is going to take over from Jan?’
• Indirect question
It’s not clear who is going to take over from Jan.
Questions can be introduced by other direct questions (with a question mark):
• What size is it?
• Do you know what size it is?
•
•

Where are we going?
Could you tell me where we are going?


Noun Clauses
Noun clauses beginning who, what, how; why; etc often follow verbs such as: describe, know,
understand, realize, explain, reveal, wonder, show and phrases such as: it is
uncertain/doubtful/not clear.
These are not questions and so are not followed by question forms.
It is important to describe exactly how this reaction takes place:
• Scientists now understand how the birds navigate over long distances.
• The table shows how many 16 to 18 year-olds remain in education.
• The diagram explains what happens under these conditions.
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In writing it may be clearer to use a direct question:
• But how do the birds navigate over long distances? Scientists now think they understand this.

Subject Questions
Subject questions do not use an auxiliary or inversion:
• What kills them?
• Who discovered this effect?
• What was the result?

Object Questions
Object questions with what and who generally use an auxiliary and inversion:
• What do these organisms live on?
• These organisms live on carbon dioxide.


Exercises
Rewrite each direct question as an indirect question or a statement, following the prompts
given:
1. Is this the right answer?
=> Do you know whether………………..…..
2. What time does the train leave?
=>Do you know……………………………..
3. Where is the entrance?
=>It’s not clear……………………………….
4. How does this machine work?
=>I want to know…………………………….
5. Who is he?
=>They didn’t know………………………..
6. When does the final examination take place?
=>Do you know……………………………
7. Is it going to rain?
=>I wonder whether………………………
8. How do thunder and lightning occur?
=>Can you explain ………………………
9. Why did you tell me to wait here?
=>I’d like to know………………………..
10. What’s the meaning of this word?
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=>Could you tell me……………………..

Fill in the gaps with the correct form of the verbs in brackets
1. For a long time people………….(think) the giant panda was a type of raccoon
2. At the beginning of the experiment, the chemicals…….………………..(place) in the beaker.
3. In medieval times the earth……………………(believe) to be flat.
4. Up until now students………………...............(allow) to wear what they want, but the new headteacher has decided to introduce a uniform.
5. Next year the new theatre ……………………(open) by some of Britain’s biggest acting stars.
6. It………………..…….(expect) that the President will resign due to the recent revelations.
7. This report………….….(claim) that there is corruption throughout the company.
8. Several students ………..………………(know) to have cheated in their exams.
There are 12 mistakes with active or passive verbs in this conversation. Find and correct the
mistakes:
Teacher: People are said that the increase in travel will lead to a loss of different cultures around the
world. Do you agree?
Student: Well, yes, I suppose that is a possibility. I’m sure the way of life of many people around
the world has changed by contact with tourists. But the change might have been happened anyway, I
suppose.
Teacher: Yes, maybe. So, do you think we should try to stop the disappearance of native cultures?
Student: Oh, yes. I think it will be very sad if we lose different cultures. They enrich our world,
don’t they? But it is also argued that many people from poor countries have given opportunities that
they wouldn’t have had if there wasn’t any tourism. Their cultures may have changed, but they have
been benefited from improvements in education and health as well as their standard of living.
Teacher: So do you think that improvements like this inevitably bring about a loss of culture, as
some people have been suggested?
Student: I suppose I do think that, yes. As we are continued to be provided with better and better
education and we have more and more contact with the world outside our own countries, we are
being become more and more the same!
Teacher: Can you give some examples of what you mean?
Student: Well, in my country we now have American restaurants and we watch American movies on
TV. American culture feels to be too dominant by many people in my country. And English words
have been come into my language too.

Teacher: Oh, that’s interesting. And do you think that there will one day be only one language in the
world?
Student: Well, the way we live has affected in a big way by things like the Internet, email and cheap
travel. All countries are using English for these things, and so we all know a little bit of English
already. But I am not sure it will use by all countries instead of their own language. That seems
unlikely to me.
Teacher: You’ve made some very interesting points. Thank you.

Answer
Rewrite each direct question as an indirect question or a statement, following the prompts
given:
1. this is the right answer?
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2. when the train leaves.
3. where the entrance is.
4. how this machine works.
5. who he was
6. when the final examination takes place.
7. it is going to rain.
8. how thunder and lightning occur?
9. why you told me to wait here.
10. what the meaning of this word is? / what this word means?
Fill in the gaps with the correct form of the verbs in brackets
1. thought
2. are (were) placed

3. was believed
4. have been allowed

5. will be opened
6. is expected
7. claims
8. are known.

There are 12 mistakes with active or passive verbs in this conversation. Find and correct the
mistakes:
1. are said -> said
2. has changed -> has been changed
3. might have been happened -> might have happened
4. have given -> have been given
5. have been benefited -> have benefited
6. have been suggested -> have suggested
7. are continued -> continue
8. are being become -> are becoming
9. feels -> is felt
10. have been come -> have come
11. has affected -> has been affected
12. will use -> will be used

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