Future Simple Passive is used to talk about an action that is going to happen in the future. In the passive voice, emphasis is put on the effect of an action rather than on the doer.
- The letter will be sent tomorrow.
- The work will be done on time.
Future Simple Passive structure
First, let’s refresh the Future Simple structure with the Active Voice:
[subject] + will + verb without ‘to’
To make statements with the Future Simple Passive, use:
[subject] + will be + the Past Participle form of the verb
Future Simple Passive forms are normally built using ‘will’ rather than ‘going to’:
- The motorway will be closed for three days.
- Your room will be cleaned while you are out.
- Only English will be spoken at the conference.
| Singular | Plural |
| I will be treated You will be treated He/she/it will be treated | We will be treated You will be treated They will be treated |
It doesn’t matter if the subject of your sentence is singular or plural. The structure doesn’t change.
- The new university will be opened by the President.
- The contract will be signed tomorrow.
- The documents will all be signed by next week.
When to use Future Simple Passive
We use Future Simple Passive for actions or events that will happen in future (tomorrow, next week (month, year), in 2020). Unlike the Future Perfect Passive, there’s no deadline here. In such statements we focus attention on the person or thing affected by the action, when the subject is unknown, unclear or irrelevant.
Compare:
- The company will build the bridge next year. – The bridge will be built next year.
- They will publish the book next year. – The book will be published next year.
In these examples, the focus is on the effect of the future action, it’s not important who will perform the action.
We can also use Future Simple Passive with verbs that are not used in continuous tenses (state verbs).
- Tomorrow all will be known.
- Ten people will be needed for this work.
We use Future Simple Passive with the same meaning as Future Simple in the active voice except for the fact that Future Simple Passive makes focus on the effect (or the object) rather than the doer (the subject) of an action. Read more about the uses of Future Simple here.
Negative forms of Future Simple Passive
Making a negative Future Simple Passive form is easy. Just insert ‘not‘ between ‘will’ and ‘be’ (you can also use ‘won’t’ instead of ‘will not’).
- The football match won’t be played because of bad weather.
- We won’t be sent to the conference.
Questions in Future Simple Passive
To make a question in Future Simple Passive, swap the subject and ‘will’. The structure for asking questions in Future Simple Passive is:
will + [subject] + be + Past Participle
- Will Jane be visited by her relatives from New York?
- Will the room be cleaned tomorrow?
To make a wh-question, insert a question word before ‘will’:
- When will the article be published?
- Why will the meeting be held?
Watch this video to understand how Future Simple in passive voice is formed:
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