Passive voice · CEFR B2 · Confident
Passive after a modal — English passive voice
Any modal can take a passive after it, and this is how instructions are written at work.
The shape
modal + be + third form
Give an instruction without naming a person.
In Hindi
किसी भी modal के बाद passive आ सकता है — दफ़्तर में निर्देश इसी तरह लिखे जाते हैं।
CoCap explains every structure in both languages, because a rule you understand in Hindi is a rule you can use in English.
The mistake to fix first
The sentence Indian-English speakers actually produce, and the reason it is wrong.
| Commonly said | Correct English |
|---|---|
This form should submit by Friday. | This form should be submitted by Friday. The form does not submit itself — it needs "be" plus the third form. |
Learn these first
These come first. The rest of this makes more sense once they are automatic.
Easy to confuse with
Close enough to be mixed up with this one. Knowing the difference is most of knowing either.
Questions people ask
- What is the passive after a modal used for?
- Any modal can take a passive after it, and this is how instructions are written at work. In practice: give an instruction without naming a person.
- How do you form the passive after a modal?
- modal + be + third form.
- What is the most common mistake with the passive after a modal?
- Saying “This form should submit by Friday.” instead of “This form should be submitted by Friday.”. The form does not submit itself — it needs "be" plus the third form.
Where passive after a modal fits
Where this structure sits in the ladder, and what surrounds it.
Passive after a modal is a CEFR B2 structure — the confident band — and it belongs to passive voice. CoCap’s syllabus files every structure this way so you can learn in order instead of jumping between whatever a search happened to return.
Reading it is not the same as saying it.
CoCap turns this page into practice: Hindi sentence in, English sentence out, corrected one thing at a time. Free, no card.
Practise the passive after a modal →