Passive voice - 1

The form
The Passive Voice is formed by: Subject + finite form of to be + Past Participle.
Example: A letter was written.

When rewriting active sentences in the passive voice, note the following:

The object of the active sentence becomes the subject of the passive sentence.
The finite form of the verb is changed (a finite form of to be + Past Participle).
The subject of the active sentence is preceeded by the preposition 'by' (or is dropped).

Note the differences between Dutch and English:

Dutch		English
o.t.t.	Het boek wordt gelezen	present simple	The book is read
o.v.t.	Het boek werd gelezen	past simple	The book was read
v.t.t.	Het boek is gelezen	present perfect	The book has been read
v.v.t.	Het boek was gelezen	past perfect	The book had been read