Introduction

In professional and academic English, we often focus on actions and results rather than on who performs them. This is especially true when discussing plans, schedules, procedures, and official arrangements. The future passive allows you to describe what will happen to something, what will be completed, or what will be arranged, without highlighting the agent. In this unit, you will learn how to form and use future passive structures accurately and naturally, including common patterns used in announcements, emails, and formal writing.

Learning Objectives

Learning Objectives
By the end of this unit, you will be able to form the future passive with will and be going to, choose the passive when the agent is unknown or unimportant, include the agent with by when necessary, and use future passive forms to describe arrangements, procedures, and outcomes in a clear B2-level style.

1) What the future passive is (and why we use it)

The passive voice shifts attention from the doer (the agent) to the action or the receiver of the action. In future contexts, this is particularly useful when you are describing scheduled work, planned changes, or official processes. Compare:

Active: The technicians will install the new system tomorrow.
Passive: The new system will be installed tomorrow.

In the passive version, the sentence sounds more formal and the focus is on the system and the plan, not on the technicians.

Important concept
Use the future passive when the result or the procedure matters more than the person doing it, or when the agent is unknown, obvious, or deliberately not mentioned.

2) Form: Future passive with “will”

The most common future passive form is:

will + be + past participle

Examples:

The final decision will be announced on Friday.
All participants will be contacted by email.
The documents will be reviewed before the meeting.

Negative form:

will not (won’t) + be + past participle
The results won’t be published until next month.

Question form:

Will + subject + be + past participle?
Will the report be finished by Monday?

3) Form: Future passive with “be going to”

When you want to express a planned future action (often based on present evidence or a clear plan), you can use:

am/is/are going to + be + past participle

Examples:

The office is going to be renovated in April.
Several changes are going to be introduced next term.

This form often appears in spoken English and in internal communication where plans are already in place.

4) Including the agent (or leaving it out)

In passive sentences, the agent can be added with by when it is important or informative:

The new policy will be approved by the board next week.
The exhibition is going to be opened by the mayor.

However, in many real-life contexts, the agent is omitted because it is unknown, unimportant, or obvious:

Your request will be processed within 48 hours.
The classrooms will be cleaned after the event.

Warning
Do not confuse be (passive) with being. In the future passive with will, the correct form is will be + past participle, not will being + past participle.

5) Typical uses in B2 contexts

a) Announcements and official communication
The schedule will be updated shortly.
All applicants will be informed of the outcome.

b) Arrangements and logistics
The equipment will be delivered on Tuesday.
The venue is going to be prepared in the morning.

c) Procedures and processes
Your identity will be verified at reception.
The data will be analysed before conclusions are drawn.

d) Promises and guarantees (often in customer service)
A replacement will be sent within five working days.
The issue will be investigated immediately.

6) Future passive vs future continuous passive (brief contrast)

At B2, it is useful to recognise that English can also express an action in progress in the future:

will be being + past participle

This form exists, but it is rare and often avoided because it sounds heavy. In most cases, the simple future passive is preferred:

Preferred: The system will be updated at 2 p.m.
Rare: The system will be being updated at 2 p.m.

Practice

Practice section
Complete each item using the correct future passive form. Answers are provided for self-checking.