This paper deals with the way the comment value conventionally associated with the passive construction builds up. This value is studied from two points of view. I first examine the connections that it will form with the addressee, and then I confront the very value with that found in the present perfect (another compound form of the English language) which I have studied at length. Far from conflicting, these two comment values complement each other and in a sense could be seen as forming a kind of subsystem per se.