The passive

1. Tenses

In English, the passive is usually formed with the auxiliary verb "be" and the past participle of the main verb. Here are various typical business sentences using passives:

simple present
English is spoken at our office.

present progressive
The company is being restructured.

simple past
I wasn't informed about the meeting.

past progressive
They had the feeling they were being misled.

present perfect
I've been put on hold again.

past perfect
We had been cheated before, so we were careful.

will-future
I'll be transferred to Hong Kong next year.

going to-future
I'm afraid we're going to be sued.

future perfect
The project will have been completed by Friday.

passive infinitive
We are the first company to be sold this year.

passive -ing forms
He doesn't like being watched.
Having been promoted, she refused to join the strike.

You will have noticed that none of the sentences above contains an agent - there is no mention of who performed the action. (Who speaks English? Who is restructuring the company?) This is very common in passive constructions. (See also section 3.)