Passive Voice of Past Continuous Tense

In passive voice of past continuous tense of affirmative sentence, we use auxiliary verb was /were with being and past participle that is third form of verb.

 Passive Voice of Past Continuous Tense- Formation

In this, we use helping verb according to the subject that is-

  • if subject of passive voice is first person and singular number that is ‘I’, helping verb ‘was’ is used
  • for subject of third person and singular number that is ‘he, she or it’, helping verb ‘was’ is used
  •  if subject is plural or second person, helping verb ‘were’ is used.

In passive voice of continuous past tense- positive, negative, interrogative and negative interrogative, we use past participle (third form) of verb.

Keep in mind that we should arrange the sentence in the following form-

  • Active sentence- subject + was / were + present participle (- ing form ) of the verb + object
  • Passive sentence- object of the active sentence + was / were + being + past participle ( third form ) of the verb + by + subject of the active sentence

Example of Active Passive Voice- Transformation

Now we shall see an example of passive voice of past continuous tense-

Active: She was drawing a picture yesterday. (drawing-  present participle of draw)

Above sentence is in the form-

  • Subject + was + present participle of ‘draw’ + object

Passive: A picture was being drawn by her yesterday. (drawn - past participle of draw)

Passive voice of this sentence is in the form-

  • Object in active + was + being + past participle of ‘draw’+ by + subject in active + remaining word.

In above sentence, we can see the changes in the transformation of active to passive voice as:

  • Object of active form (picture) became subject.
  • Subject ‘she’ became object- 'her'.
  • Past tense of ‘to be- was’ and being is added
  • Past participle of verb ‘draw’ that is drawn is taken.

     More Examples

All of these are affirmative sentences-

Active: They were watching a movie.

  • Passive: A movie was being watched by them.

Active: A mason was building a wall.

  • Passive: A wall was being built by a mason.

Active: A teacher was delivering a lecture.

  • Passive: A lecture was being delivered by a teacher.

Active: The students were obeying orders of their physical trainer.

  • Passive: Orders of their physical trainer were being obeyed by the students.

You may also like passive voice of the tenses-

  1. Simple Present
  2. Continuous Present
  3. Perfect present
  4. Simple Past
  5. Perfect past
  6. Simple Future
  7. Future Perfect

Hi, I am Madhuri Kherde, an educationist, ex-principal of a secondary school in Mumbai, and founder of EnglishLamp.com. I have been teaching English and Mathematics for the last thirty-four years. I like to share my knowledge and experience with others. So I hope you enjoy my posts on this website.