What matters more — who did it, or what happened?
Most sentences have a clear subject doing an action: American Airlines is adding a new screen to every seat. But sometimes the action itself is the important part, not who did it. Then we use the passive voice.
We build the passive with be + past participle: is/are added, was/were removed, can be charged, will be fitted. The thing that receives the action moves to the front of the sentence: A new screen is being added to every seat — now the screen is the focus, not the airline.
Try these
Watch out: don’t forget “be” — The screens fitted last year is wrong; it needs were: The screens were fitted last year. And only add by … when it’s important to say who did the action — most of the time, it isn’t.
Rewrite each sentence in the passive voice.
- American Airlines is adding a new screen to every seat.
- The airline removed the seatback screens a few years ago.
- Passengers can charge their phone with a USB-C cable at their seat.
- Engineers will fit the screens into hundreds of older planes over the next few years.
- Boeing and Airbus will build the new narrowbody planes with screens fitted from the factory — rewrite so the focus is on the planes. Do you need to keep “by Boeing and Airbus”?
- A new screen is being added to every seat. Passive present continuous (is/are being + past participle) — the change is happening now. “By American Airlines” isn’t needed; we already know it’s their planes.
- The seatback screens were removed a few years ago. Passive past simple — the screens are the topic of the story, so they lead the sentence.
- Phones can be charged with a USB-C cable at the seat. Passive with a modal: can + be + past participle.
- The screens will be fitted into hundreds of older planes over the next few years. Passive future with will — the planes matter, not the engineers doing the work.
- The new narrowbody planes will be built with screens fitted from the factory. “By Boeing and Airbus” is dropped here too — the reader already knows who makes the planes, so naming them again adds nothing new.
Now make it real
Think about your own flights or your work. Write 1–2 true sentences about something that is done or was done — your luggage, your ticket, a safety check, the cabin. Use the frame: ___ is/was/will be + past participle (by ___, only if it matters).
Before you compare your sentence, check it against this list:
- Does the sentence say what really happens or happened to you?
- Did you use be (is/am/are/was/were/will be) before the past participle?
- Did you only add “by …” if it’s genuinely important information?
- Does it start with a capital letter and end with a full stop?
My bags were checked twice before the flight.
Boarding passes are scanned at the gate.
Now rewrite your sentence to make it even clearer or more precise.
CEFR Level A2 / ICAO Level 3
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