Active vs. Passive sentences

1. Active Voice vs Passive Voice
Things to remember:
*Passive Voice is ALWAYS written like this:
Subject + (be) + (past participle of a verb).
*ALL sentences have a verb tense. Passive sentences are written using these same tenses.
Examples:
1. ACTIVE: I drive my car to school.
PASSIVE: My car is driven to school.
This sentence has a verb tense – SIMPLE PRESENT.
That same verb tense is used in the passive voice.
The verb tense is shown in the verb (be), in this case, “is”.
“is” is simple present tense.
“driven” is the past participle of “drive”. We use the past participle for only one reason: to
show that this is a passive sentence. When a listener hears the verb (be) then a past participle,
this is the ONLY reason that we understand the sentence is passive.
2. ACTIVE: I drove my car to school.
PASSIVE: My car was driven.
This sentence has a verb tense (as do all sentences) – SIMPLE PAST.
“Was” shows you that the sentence is written in simple past.
“Driven” does NOT tell you ANYTHING about the verb tense.
When the past participle is used after the verb (be), the sentence is
understood to be passive voice. This understanding is just the
same as writing a VERB + ING (present participle) after the verb
(be). When this is written, the reader knows that the author is
using a continuous tense. That is why we use the words we use.
This is the secret to understanding English verb tenses.
3. ACTIVE: I have driven my car to school.
PASSIVE: My car has been driven to school.
The verb tense of this sentence is present perfect.

2. The tense of the verb in the passive sentence is known by how (be)
is written: “has been”.
Look at it this way:
Passive = be + past participle
Using the same example,
(be) = has been
(past participle = driven
“Has been” is the verb (be) in present perfect tense. Knowing this, we can
write a passive sentence using present perfect tense.
or in
4. ACTIVE: I am driving my car to school. past ACTIVE: I was driving my car to school
tense
PASSIVE: My car is being driven to school. PASSIVE: My car is being driven to school.
- Present Continuous Tense - Future Continuous Tense
The tense is Present Continuous The tense is Past Continuous.
In the passive sentence, the verb is written “is.” The verb (be) in the passive sentence is “was”
In continuous tenses for passive voice, we add It looks like this:
“being” between the verb (be) and the past (be) + being + (past participle)
participle. “will be” + “being” + “(driven)”
This is the ONLY way we can understand that it
is a continuous sentence in passive voice.
It looks like this:
(be) + being + (past participle)
“will be” + “being” + “(driven)”
5. ACTIVE: I will be driving my car to school tomorrow.
PASSIVE: My car will be being driven to school tomorrow.
Practice: Write these Active Voice sentences in Passive Voice.
1. I have written my essay.

3. 2. The repair shop is fixing my car.
3. The repair shop is fixing my car tomorrow.
4. The class took a quiz yesterday.
5. The class had taken a quiz before.
6. Bob will help his sister.
7. Bob is helping his sister.
8. Mary and Tom have eaten breakfast.