The passive forms of the simple past are derived from the past tense of the auxiliary verb ‘to be’ (i.e., ‘was’ or ‘were’) and the corresponding verb in the past participle. For the sake of convenience, the past participle is frequently called the 3rd form. This form ends in ‘-ed’ for regular verbs; the irregular ones are listed in the third column of the table of irregular verbs. Note that the passive always requires a form of ‘to be’ and never ‘did’! The auxiliary verb ‘did’, on the other hand, is only used in the active forms of the Past Simple.

In negations and negative sentences, ‘was’ and ‘were’ are solely negated with ‘not’ and become ‘was not’ (short form: wasn’t) or ‘were not’ (short form: weren’t). Compare the following example sentences and the table below:

• Examples of passives of the past simple in sentences:
  • “Jason was asked if he wanted to play in the national team.”
    • Here, it is used with a regular verb and the ending ‘-ed’.
  • “The two old houses at the end of the street were built in 1956.”
    • This occurrence shows an irregular verb in the plural.

Example verb: ‘to be seen’

Positive/affirmative sentences

Negative sentences

The following explanations relate to the ‘Formation of the simple past tense (passive)’ and can also be helpful:

• Use of the past simple
• Formation of the past simple in active voice
• Exercise 1: past simple