This document discusses active and passive voice. The active voice has a subject performing an action on an object. The passive voice focuses more on the object and is formed by making the object the subject, using the verb "be" in the tense of the original verb, and adding the past participle of the main verb. The agent (original subject) can be added after "by". Examples are provided to demonstrate transforming sentences between active and passive voice while maintaining the correct verb tense.

1. PASSIVE VOICE

2. What is active voice?
Active sentence 1:
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The boy watches the stars.
subject verb object
Active sentence 2:
●
My mom waters the flowers.
subject verb object
Key: in an active voice sentence, a subject does an
action that affects an object.

3. When do we use the passive
voice?
1. When we want to give more importance
to the object rather than the subject.
2. When the subject is not important or we
don’t know it.
3. It's often used in formal language, rules
and instructions.

4. How to do the transformation?
The boy watches the stars.
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 Step 1: take the object and put it as the subject.
The stars
Step 2: add verb to be verb in the tense of the original verb and then put the main
verb in participle.
The stars are watched
Step 3: if you want, add the agent preceded by the preposition “by”
The stars are watched by the boy

5. Summarising:
The boy watches the stars.
The stars are watched by the boy

6. Tense of the verbs
Pay attention to the tense of the original
verb:
 The kids study Literature.
Literature is studied by the kids.
present
The tense of the verb to be is the tense of the main verb in the
active sentence.

7. Tense of the verbs
 Pay attention to the tense of the original
verb: The teacher explained the class.
The class was explained by the teacher.
past
The tense of the verb to be is the tense of the main verb in the
active sentence.

8. Tense of the verbs
 Pay attention to the tense of the original
verb: The teacher explained the class.
The class was explained by the teacher.
past
The tense of the verb to be is the tense of the main verb in
the active sentence.

9. Tense of the verbs
Pay attention to the tense of the original verb:
The police will arrest the suspect soon.
The suspect will be arrested by the police.
Future
The tense of the verb to be is the tense of the main verb in the
active sentence.

10. B E  i n t h e
t e n s e o f t h e a c t i o n
t h e p r i n c i p a l v e r b i n P a s t P a r t i c i p l e
T H E P A S S I V E V E R B
t o B E + P a s t P a r t i c i p le + { c o m p l e m e n t s } + b y – a g e n t
( i n t h e a c t i v e t e n s e ) + ( m a i n v e r b ) + { i f n e e d e d }
A C T I V E P A S S I V E
P R E S E N T
S h e w a n t s a n i c e - c r e a m
A n i c e - c r e a m i s w a n t e d
P A S T
H e s e n t a l e t t e r
A l e t t e r w a s s e n t
F U T U R E
W e w i l l b u y a n e w c a r n e x t w e e k
A n e w c a r w i l l b e b o u g h t
P R E S E N T P E R F E C T
T h e y h a v e c u t t h e g r a s s
T h e g r a s s h a s b e e n c u t
T h e a g e n t o f t h e a c t i o n [ t h e
s u b je c t i n t h e a c t i v e v o i c e ]
BE + PARTICIPLE (-ED / 3rd
column Irregular verbs)

11. EXAMPLES
1 / T h e y b u ilt t h is h o u s e in 1 4 6 6
2 / T h is h o u s e w a s b u ilt in 1 4 6 6
1 / C h a n n e l is la n d e r s s p e a k F r e n c h & E n g lis h
2 / F r e n c h & E n g lis h a r e s p o k e n b y C h a n n e l
is la n d e r s
1 / T h is b o o k w ill c h a n g e y o u r lif e
2 / Y o u r lif e w ill b e c h a n g e d b y t h is b o o k
E x a m p le s

12. Activity 1
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Transform the following sentences to
passive.
Christopher Columbus discovered America
The architect will build the house.
My sister bought some magazines.
People eat pizza in Italy.
They make cars and computers in Korea.
The Egyptians build the Pyramids.
Aldous Huxley wrote “Brave New World”.