The passive voice in the past simple tense

🔊 المعلّمة تقرأ لك

A tourist guide in London points at the Houses of Parliament and says: “On 16th October 1834, most of the building was destroyed by a fire.” He could also have said: “On 16th October 1834, a fire destroyed most of the building.” Same date, same fact, same fire. But the first sentence starts with the building, and the second with the fire. So why would the guide start with the building — and what did he have to change in the verb to do it?

🎓في نهاية هذا الدرس ستكون قادرا على:

تحويل جملة من المبنيّ للمعلوم إلى المبنيّ للمجهول في الماضي البسيط : ⁦was · were + past participle⁩
معرفة متى نستعمل المبنيّ للمجهول : حين يهمّنا ما وقع عليه الفعل أكثر من فاعله، أو حين نجهل الفاعل
ذكر الفاعل بعد ⁦by⁩ حين يكون مهمّا، والاستغناء عنه حين لا يكون كذلك
تجنّب المبنيّ للمجهول مع الأفعال التي لا مفعول لها، ومع الفعل ⁦die⁩
التعريف بمعلم أو بشخصيّة في جمل مبنيّة للمجهول : ⁦was built · was painted · was born⁩

🔑يفترض هذا الدرس أنّك تتقن:

تصريف ⁦to be⁩ في الماضي البسيط : ⁦was · were⁩
التصريف الثالث ⁦(past participle)⁩ للأفعال المنتظمة ⁦(-ed)⁩ ولبعض الأفعال الشاذّة ⁦(built · written · known)⁩
ترتيب الجملة الإنجليزيّة : ⁦subject + verb + object⁩

Presentation

اقرأ الحوار أوّلا. ابحث فيه عن الأفعال التي لا يقوم فاعلها بالعمل، بل يقع العمل عليه، قبل أن تقرأ القاعدة.

On an open-top bus in London, with an English tourist guide

Guide: We are now in the city of Westminster. On your left, along the river Thames, you can see the Houses of Parliament. The place is also known as Westminster Palace. Amina: It looks very old. When was it built? Guide: It was originally built in the eleventh century. But on 16th October 1834, most of the building was destroyed by a fire. Amina: So the palace we see today is not the old one? Guide: Not all of it. Six years later, construction began on the current Houses of Parliament, and it was completed thirty years later. Amina: Is it protected today? Guide: Yes. In 1987, UNESCO designated the building as a World Heritage Site.

What does the guide's English tell you before you read any rule?

ماذا يعلّمك كلام الدليل قبل أن تقرأ القاعدة ؟

In was built, was destroyed and was completed, the subject does not do the action: the palace did not build itself, and the building did not destroy anything — something was done to it.
The verb has two parts: was, the past of to be, and a past participle: built, destroyed, completed.
When the guide wants to say who did it, he adds by: “destroyed by a fire”. When nobody knows, or it does not matter — who built the palace in the eleventh century? — he says nothing.
Amina's question works the same way: “When was it built?” — was simply moves in front of the subject.

⟹ This is the passive voice. The guide even uses it once in the present: “The place is also known as Westminster Palace.” The rule below only puts all this into words.

The active and the passive are two ways of organising the same sentence. Active — the focus is on the doer: subject + verb + direct object. “On October 16, 1834 a fire destroyed most of the building.” Passive — the focus is on what the action was done to: subject (the old direct object) + be + past participle + by + agent (the old subject). “On October 16, 1834 most of the building was destroyed by a fire.” ⭐ In the past simple, be becomes was with a singular subject and were with a plural subject. The past participle never changes.

The three forms, in the past simple

Form	Pattern	Example
Affirmative	subject + was or were + past participle (+ by + agent)	Guernica was painted by Picasso in 1937.
Negative	subject + wasn't or weren't + past participle	The Houses of Parliament weren't built in one year.
Interrogative	Was or Were + subject + past participle …?	When was Westminster Palace built?

Only was or were changes, with the subject. The past participle stays the same in the three forms.

The past participles you will need in this lesson

regular, with -ed — destroyed · completed · painted · published · founded · located · situated · designatedirregular — built (build) · written (write) · known (know)a special one — born: people were born — always in the passive form

Found or find? They are two different verbs. To find something → found. To found a town or a school → founded. So: “Timgad was founded by the Romans” — they built it and organised it. “Timgad was found” would mean that somebody discovered it — a different story.

انتبه : ⁦to found⁩ (أسّس) غير ⁦to find⁩ (وجد). تيمقاد ⁦was founded⁩ : أسّسها الرومان.

When do we use the passive — and when can't we?

متى نستعمل المبنيّ للمجهول ؟ ومتى لا يمكن استعماله ؟

Use the passive when:

you want to put the focus on the person or the thing the action was done to — the palace, the painting, the book;
you don't know who did the action: “Westminster Palace was originally built in the eleventh century.” — by whom? The guide does not say;
the doer is not important, or everybody knows who it is: “The thief was arrested.” — by whom? The police, of course.

Only a verb with a direct object can go into the passive: to build something, to arrest someone. ⛔ No passive with a verb that has no object — to arrive, to go, to travel, to die: “He arrived late to school.” ⛔ No passive with a verb of state — to be, to seem: “I was busy all day.” · “He seemed unhappy.” ⭐ Two fixed uses to learn by heart: “Leonardo da Vinci was born in 1452.” — always passive. “Leonardo da Vinci died at the age of sixty-seven.” — always active. Never write “was died”.

ليس كلّ فعل يُبنى للمجهول : يلزمه مفعول به.

Practice

تمارين. أنجزها على كرّاسك أوّلا، ثمّ افتح التصحيح.

Exercise 1 — Write the correct form of the verb in brackets

a. Timgad (be found) by the Romans. b. Ketchaoua and Sultan Ahmed mosques (be build) in the 17th century. c. The Houses of Parliament (be situate) along the river Thames, in London. (They are still there today.) d. Shakespeare's house (be locate) in the small town of Stratford-upon-Avon. (It is still there today.)

Answers to Exercise 1

	Answer	Why
a	Timgad was founded by the Romans.	a past event and a singular subject ⟹ was + founded (to found a town)
b	Ketchaoua and Sultan Ahmed mosques were built in the 17th century.	a plural subject ⟹ were · build ⟹ built
c	The Houses of Parliament are situated along the river Thames, in London.	still true today ⟹ present simple: are + situated
d	Shakespeare's house is located in the small town of Stratford-upon-Avon.	still true today ⟹ present simple: is + located

Items c and d are not in the past: a building that is still there today is described in the present passive — is or are + past participle. The past passive is for what happened once: it was built, it was founded, it was destroyed.

Exercise 2 — Put these sentences into the passive, as in the example

Example: Da Vinci painted Mona Lisa. ⟹ Mona Lisa was painted by da Vinci. a. Picasso painted Guernica in 1937. b. The Algerian writer Kateb Yacine published “Nedjma” in 1956. c. The Algerian writer Mouloud Feraoun wrote “The Poor Man's Son” (Le Fils du Pauvre) in 1950. d. In 1987, UNESCO designated the Houses of Parliament as a World Heritage Site.

Answers to Exercise 2

Guernica was painted by Picasso in 1937.
“Nedjma” was published by the Algerian writer Kateb Yacine in 1956.
“The Poor Man's Son” (Le Fils du Pauvre) was written by the Algerian writer Mouloud Feraoun in 1950.
In 1987, the Houses of Parliament were designated as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.

The same three steps every time: ① the object moves to the front; ② the verb becomes was or were + past participle — were in d, because the Houses of Parliament are plural; ③ the old subject comes after by. The date does not move.

Exercise 3 — Your turn: two outstanding Algerians

Choose two famous Algerian writers, artists or scientists. Write two passive sentences about each of them: what was written, painted, built or discovered — and when.

A model answer — yours will be different

“Nedjma” was written by Kateb Yacine. It was published in 1956. “Opium and the Stick” (L'Opium et le Bâton) was written by Mouloud Mammeri. It was published in 1965.

Check your own sentences with the three steps: the thing first, then was or were + past participle, then by + the person — only if you need to say who.

At the BEM, the passive often hides in the Mastery of language part, among other tenses: “Write the correct form of the verbs in brackets — “Nedjma” (write) by Kateb Yacine in 1956.” The clues are the word by and a subject that cannot do the action: a book does not write. The same part may also ask you to reorder words into a sentence built with be + past participle + by. Keep three things ready: was or were + past participle ; the irregular past participles — built, written, known ; and by + the doer at the end. ⛔ Two classic mistakes: “Nedjma wrote by Kateb Yacine” — be is missing; and “Malek Haddad was died in 1978” — die is never passive: he died on June 2, 1978.

The passive does not change the facts — it changes the order of the sentence. What the action was done to comes first; the verb becomes was or were + a past participle; and the doer comes last, after by, only if you need it. Use it when the thing matters more than the doer: a palace, a painting, a book. Keep the active for verbs with no object — and for die: people were born, and they died.

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