Year 6 English · Key Stage 2 · Vocabulary, grammar and punctuation – English Appendix 2

Year 6 active and passive voice: a guide for parents

In Year 6, children learn that the same event can be told in two ways. In an active sentence the subject does the action (“I broke the window”). In a passive sentence the thing the action happens to comes first (“The window was broken”). Children learn to recognise both, to build the passive correctly, and to choose between them to change what a sentence draws attention to.

Active and passive voice, explained

Everything starts with three jobs a word can do in a sentence. The verb is the action. The subject is the person or thing doing the action, and the object is the person or thing the action happens to. In “The dog chased the cat”, chased is the verb, the dog is the subject and the cat is the object. Because the subject is doing the action, the sentence is active. Most of the sentences children read and write are active.

To make the passive, the object swaps places and becomes the subject: “The cat was chased by the dog.” The verb changes shape too. It is made from a form of the verb to be (is, was, will be, has been) followed by the past participle of the main verb, such as chased, broken, written or eaten. The original doer can be moved to the end after the word by, or it can be left out altogether: “The cat was chased.” Notice that the meaning, who did what to whom, has not changed. Only the presentation has.

That is exactly how the curriculum frames it: the passive is used to affect the presentation of information in a sentence. A writer might use it to keep the focus on what matters most (“The window was broken”), to leave out a doer who is unknown or unimportant (“My bike was stolen”), or to sound more formal and impersonal, as science reports often do (“The water was heated to 50°C”). The passive can also leave out who is responsible, which is why writers and readers should notice when it is being used.

Two practical points help children spot the passive. First, only a verb that has an object can be made passive. “The sun rose” has no object, so there is no passive version. Second, voice and tense are separate ideas. A passive sentence can be past (“was built”), present (“is being built”) or future (“will be built”). Some teachers use a quick check: see whether “by” plus a silly doer will fit after the verb. “The window was broken by monkeys” works, so it is passive.

Teachers also stress that the passive is a choice, not a goal. Active sentences are usually shorter and more direct, which suits stories and persuasive writing. In May of Year 6, children may be asked in the national grammar, punctuation and spelling test to identify a passive or to rewrite a sentence in one voice or the other, and the same understanding helps them write more varied, purposeful sentences.

Words your child will hear

Verb: A word for an action or state, such as chased, broke or is.
Subject: The person or thing the sentence is about, usually just before the verb. In the active “The dog chased the cat” it is the dog; in the passive “The cat was chased” it is the cat.
Object: The person or thing the action happens to. In “The dog chased the cat”, it is the cat.
Active: A sentence in which the subject does the action: “I broke the window.”
Passive: A sentence in which the subject has the action done to it: “The window was broken.”
Past participle: The verb form that follows have or has (I have broken), and follows a form of be in the passive (it was broken). Other examples are written and eaten.
Voice: Whether a sentence is active or passive.

What the National Curriculum says

The programme of study for Year 6 says:

Pupils should be taught use of the passive to affect the presentation of information in a sentence
Pupils should be taught to recognise and use the grammatical terminology: subject, object, active, passive

Objectives from the National Curriculum in England, © Crown copyright, used under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

A worked example

Rewrite “I broke the window in the greenhouse” in the passive. Then decide which version suits a note to a neighbour.

Find the three parts. I is the subject, broke is the verb and the window in the greenhouse is the object. The subject is doing the action, so the sentence is active.
Move the object to the front so it becomes the new subject: “The window in the greenhouse…”
Build the passive verb. The original verb is past tense, so use the past form of to be, which is was. Then add the past participle of break, which is broken: “was broken”.
Decide what to do with the doer. It can go at the end after by, or be dropped. With the doer: “The window in the greenhouse was broken by me.” Without it: “The window in the greenhouse was broken.”
Choose for the purpose. In a note to a neighbour, the active “I broke the window” is honest and direct. The passive without a doer hides who was responsible, which is why it can sound evasive in that setting, though it is fine in a report where the doer doesn’t matter.

The window in the greenhouse was broken (by me).

Common mistakes and how to help

Thinking the passive means the past tense

Examples such as “was broken” and “was chased” all happen to be in the past, so children link passive with was.

What helps: Write the same passive in three tenses: “is repaired”, “was repaired”, “will be repaired”. All three are passive. Tense tells you when, voice tells you whether the subject is the doer.

Calling any sentence with was or were passive

Was is part of the passive, so sentences like “The window was open” or “She was running” get labelled passive by mistake.

What helps: Look for the past participle and ask whether the subject is receiving an action. “She was running” has no past participle and she is doing the action, so it is active.

Believing the passive is always wrong

Teachers do encourage strong, direct active sentences in stories, so some children conclude that the passive is a mistake.

What helps: Show where it helps: “My bike was stolen” is natural because the thief is unknown. Ask your child who the sentence is really about and whether the doer matters.

Using the wrong verb form, such as “The window was broke”

For irregular verbs, the simple past (broke, wrote, ate) differs from the past participle (broken, written, eaten), and in speech they are often mixed up.

What helps: Test the form by putting “I have” in front of it: “I have broken” sounds right, “I have broke” does not. The word that fits after “have” is the one to use after was.

How to help at home

Write family headlines. Turn home news into a passive sentence that hides the doer: “The last biscuit was eaten.” Then add the culprit with by: “The last biscuit was eaten by Dad.” It shows how the passive keeps the focus on the event. (Newspaper headlines often drop the was, as in “Last biscuit eaten”, but in a full sentence it needs to stay.)
Hunt for passives on signs and labels. “Dogs must be kept on a lead” and “Tickets will be checked” are passive. Wherever you are, ask your child to find one and say who is really doing the action.
Flip sentences back and forth. Say an active sentence, such as “The goalkeeper saved the penalty”, and ask for the passive: “The penalty was saved by the goalkeeper.” Then swap roles and let your child try to catch you out.
Rewrite a line of a favourite story. Choose a short sentence from a book your child loves and turn it passive. Read both aloud and discuss which gives a better picture, and why the author chose the active one.

Updated 20 October 2026.