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So an impossible thought came to my mind. I'd like to know if there's any way to have an "is" in a passive tense. It's probably just a result of broken translation, but I'll try to lead you to it.

  • A service "is provided" - a straight-forward passive, where the verb is in past participle
  • Something "is existing" - valid language (verb in present participle), although it would be better said simply "exists"
  • Something "is existed" - a grammatically correct passive (past participle), right? right?
  • Something "is been" - a grammatically correct "is" passive

Now I have no idea what this would mean, because the English "is" is quite different from the Finnish equivalent which is also used to express "exists" and "has". But I could imagine it being used to convey something like "we are being", to use the "we" passive.

Still, is this valid English? I recognise this has no practical purpose, but it didn't stop me from wondering about this for hours. Languages are fun!

Sources discussing this topic in other ways: SX, Quora, although neither of them mention it being a passive.

Felix
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  • Can you provide a concrete example of a sentence you want to convert into the passive, or a sentence you are looking for the correct form of "to be"? Sentences are normally converted into the passive by making the object the subject, but "to be" generally doesn' t have an object. You can reverse "Horses are animals" to "Animals are horses", but that's not putting into the passive. – Stuart F Aug 05 '21 at 11:36
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    While your first example is passive, "is existing" is just the present continuous form of the verb "to exist". I do not believe "is existed" or "is been" can ever be used in modern English - you would need "has existed" and "has been". – Peter Aug 05 '21 at 11:45
  • @StuartF Yeah, apologies for the lack of examples. I couldn't come up with any, because as I said I don't have a clue what "is been" would mean exactly. – Felix Aug 05 '21 at 11:58
  • @Peter Fair enough, I did point out that "is existed" would be the passive form. But "has existed" and "has been" are not passive! – Felix Aug 05 '21 at 11:59
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    I did point out that "is existed" would be the passive form. No it isn't. "Exist" is intransitive and thus has no passive form. Likewise, "be" has no passive form. – Greybeard Aug 05 '21 at 20:27
  • @Greybeard I simply meant "is" + past participle. It's been explained why it's not exactly valid English though. But thanks. – Felix Aug 06 '21 at 04:34

3 Answers3

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'Be' is an overworked word. Relevant usages here are:

  1. Be is a/the copula, used to link [the subject] to a nounal or adjectival complement:

He is the tallest lad in the class. He is very tall.

2a. Be is an auxiliary/auxiliary verb, used with present participles to make 'continuous' constructions such as

He is eating his tea. He is/was/will [then] be sleeping.

But as you say, ' ... is existing ...' sounds far from natural. Stative verbs often resist the formation of continuous forms. *He is possessing a new car. / *He is being cold. / He is being rude.

  1. Be is used to make the passive construction/s. Huddleston and Pullum, the authors of 'The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language', distinguish between two forms of passive: the 'adjectival passive' and the 'be-passive' (The 'get-passive' also exists, but is not relevant here).

In the sentence 'Albuquerque is located in New Mexico', 'located' exemplifies the 'adjectival passive' according to H & P, but in the sentence ‘The source of the White Nile was located in 1937 [by the German explorer Burkhart Waldecker]', 'was located' is the 'be-passive'. The difference is that the be-passive has a covert – or, if the by-phrase is included, overt – agent (here, Herr Waldecker).

Note that some sentences are ambiguous. 'The window was broken' may be either passive construction. 'The window was broken, we noticed as soon as we arrived' must be the adjectival passive, and 'The window was broken by the hailstones' must be the be-passive. Also, there is arguably a continuum between verbiness and adjectiveness in sentences such as 'He is loved'.

.............

Not all verbs, and no intransitive verbs (or rather intransitive usages), passivise. Exist is intransitive and be has rare excursions as an intransitive verb ('I am') (I'll not over-complicate by listing this as number (4) in the list here) which your fourth example seems to be searching for. Copular forms don't passivise either, though they may invert: 'Our Johnny is a fine boy.' ↔ 'A fine boy is our Johnny.'

.............

2b. To complicate matters, there is a rare usage of be to form the perfect construction, where have would be by far the most normal auxiliary of choice. The be-perfect is archaic or nowadays a literary style choice, except in the odd expression ('He'll let us know when he is/has finished').

Edwin Ashworth
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    Wow, loads of stuff I wasn't aware of. Thank you so much for the comprehensive answer! – Felix Aug 05 '21 at 11:47
  • As an aside, you can make the separator lines with a bunch of hyphens, if you like it better than the dots. – Felix Aug 05 '21 at 12:00
  • It's much more simple than that. Press "enter",type
    and then press "enter" twice     – fev Aug 05 '21 at 13:25
  • If someone says '... is existing ...' I would guess that English is not their native language. I have known Russians who say things like this in English, presumably modeling the Russian way of doing things. – GEdgar Aug 05 '21 at 13:41
  • ... and/or over-generalising a rule of thumb. – Edwin Ashworth Aug 05 '21 at 13:50
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In order to make your question more understandable, I would first like to propose to revise/rephrase it. Your original question reads as:

I'd like to know if there's any way to have an "is" in a passive tense.

The answer to this question is (of course) "Yes" and it is straightforward to see how:

  • ACTIVE: Cats catch mice.
  • PASSIVE : Mice are caught by cats.

Based on the information you have presented in your question entry, I assume that your intention is actually to ask:

I'd like to know if there's any way to have an "is been" in a passive tense.

Now, the answer to this rephrased question is NO. I'll try to explain this by using "reverse engineering":

(I) In order for us to be able to talk about the passive of a sentence, the sentence needs to have at least one object:

  • ACTIVE: The man painted the wall.
  • PASSIVE: The wall was painted [by the man].

Here, the object is "the wall".

(II) Some sentences have more than one object (a direct and an indirect object). Therefore, they have two different passive forms for each of the two objects:

  • ACTIVE: They gave me a book.
  • PASSIVE-1: A book was given to me [by them].
  • PASSIVE-2: I was given a book [by them].

The second passive form may look strange to some readers, but both passive forms are correct. On the other hand, PASSIVE-1 is more common in formal written English while PASSIVE-2 is more common is spoken English.

(III) A passive sentence of the form "Y is been [by X]", which is the one you question about, corresponds to an active sentence of the form "X is/are Y". This is a sentence in Simple Present Tense and its main verb is the verb "to be".

(IV) An active sentence in Simple Present Tense of the form "X is/are Y" usually expresses a happening, a quality, a location, etc:

  • HAPPENING: The meeting is tonight.
  • QUALITY: Jane is beautiful.
  • LOCATION: Jack is at home now.

Obviously, these sentences and similar sentences of this form do not have an object and therefore they do not have a corresponding passive from.

meyuksel
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  • Thanks for this more common language explanation! The requirement of an object is a bit odd to me though. But it too might be a translation thing. For example "Beautiful are been [there]" could well mean something like "people are beautiful there". But I feel like I'm pulling things out of a hat at this point. Anyways, much appreciated! – Felix Aug 05 '21 at 12:21
  • Thanks @Felix. "Beautiful are been [there]" is not a valid sentence in English (for the same reason I explained in my answer). It is not the passive form of any active sentence. In addition, it does not have the same/similar meaning as/to "people are beautiful there". Moreover, the sentences "people are beautiful there" and "there are beautiful people [there]" are not identical in meaning. It appears that you need to focus on the difference between the verbs requiring an object and the verbs not requiring an object: the transitive and intransitive verbs. – meyuksel Aug 05 '21 at 12:36
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I'd like to know if there's any way to have an "is" in [the] passive [voice].

Yes.

Please consider the following.

The team enters the radiation zone, one by one. The atomic energy rays irradiate them, and each of the four members is contaminated in turn. First, Harrison is, then Jones is, then Smith is, then Williams is.

In the example’s final sentence, I employ the passive form of the verb is four times.

A further example: Imagine a discussion of the state of the team members from the example above. In this version, I shall use the perfect tense.

They waited as the corporal affirmed the identities of the irradiated team members. Who had been contaminated? Harrison had been, and Jones had been, and Smith had been, and Williams had been.

Something "is existed" - a grammatically correct passive (past participle), right?

No. The form is existed is not standard, and is never used.

Something "is been" - a grammatically correct "is" passive

Not grammatically correct. The form you seek is "has been".

J. Berry
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    The last sentence contains no passives of "be"; at best it's short for "is [contaminated]", which is a passive of "contaminate", not "be". – psmears Aug 05 '21 at 10:19
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    I think this is a shorthand for "Harrison is contaminated" rather than a pure "is" passive. Could you explain some more? – Felix Aug 05 '21 at 10:19
  • The last sentence does indeed contain passives of to be in the form of is. Whether or not my usages of is are short for "is [contaminated]" is irrelevant. The original question asked "if there's any way to have an is [in the] passive [voice]." And I have shown a way. – J. Berry Aug 05 '21 at 10:57
  • The passive in English is constructed using a form of "to be" (in the active voice), plus a past participle (eg "contaminated", "been"). To have a passive of "to be" you'd need an active form of "to be" (eg "is" or "is being") plus "been" - say, *"He is being been". Your examples have passives, but of "contaminate" not of "be" - which is not what was asked. – psmears Aug 05 '21 at 11:20
  • If you look at "Harrison is" and you find "contaminated" somewhere, then you err. – J. Berry Aug 05 '21 at 11:21
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    I appreciate the answer Jesse, but I'll have to agree with psmears. The sentence could've been further reduced to "First, Harrison, then Jones, then ..." It's no different adding "is" or "is contaminated". – Felix Aug 05 '21 at 11:40
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    @Jesse: Even if you don't agree that it is an ellipsis of "contaminated", "Harrison is" is still active, not passive. – psmears Aug 05 '21 at 13:48
  • I appreciate your responses and feedback. – J. Berry Aug 07 '21 at 19:17