The document defines active and passive voice and provides examples of changing sentences from active to passive voice under different tenses. Active voice shows the subject performing the action, while passive voice shows the subject receiving the action. The rules for changing each tense from active to passive are given, including how to change the helping verbs and change the subject to an object or vice versa. Examples are provided for each tense.
2. DEFINITION
Active voice
A verb is in active voice when its form shows that the person or thing denoted by the subject does
something.
E.g. He will finish the work in a fortnight.
DEFINITION
Passive voice
A verb is in the passive voice when its form shows that something is done to the person or thing
denoted by the subject.
E.g. The work will be finished by him in a fortnight.
3. Active and passive voice with tenses
Formula Of Active Voice:
Subject + 1st form of verb + Object.
The formula of Passive Voice for Present Indefinite Tense to Passive Voice:
Object + is/are/am + III form of verb + by+ subject.
Simple Present Tense
is,am,are+3rd verb
Active Voice Passive Voice
He lights the candle. The candle is lighted by him.
He does not light the candle. The candle is not lighted by him.
Do you eat meat? Is meat eaten by you?
4. Examples
.She cleans her room. (A.V)
.We pluck the flowers daily. (A.V)
.My mother loved me very much. (A.V)
.A plumber repairs all the taps. (A.V)
.Father loves his daughter very much. (A.V)
5. Present Continuous Tense
is,am,are+being+3rd verb
Active voice: Subject (doer) + is/am/are + V1+ing + object
Passive voice: The object (receiver of the action) + is/am/are + being + V3 + (by the doer)
Active Voice Passive Voice
I am driving a car. A car is being driven by me.
I am not driving a car. A car is not being driven by me.
Am I driving a car? Is a car being driven by me?
6. Active voice: Ashish is teaching English at this university.
Passive voice: English is being taught by Ashish at this university.
Active voice: They are making a movie about me.
Passive voice: A movie about me is being made (by them).
Active voice: A robot is serving food in this hotel.
Passive voice: Food is being served by a robot in this hotel.
Active voice: They are taking interviews for different posts.
Passive voice: Interviews are being taken for different posts (by them).
Active voice: The police are interrogating him right now.
Passive voice: He is being interrogated (by the police right now).
Active voice: Everybody is watching the final match.
Passive voice: The final match is being watched by everyone.
7. Present Perfect Tense
has,have+been+3rd verb
Active Voice Passive Voice
She has stolen my book. My book has been stolen by her.
She has not stolen my book.My book has not been stolen by her.
Has she stolen my book? Has my book been stolen by her?
8. Normal Present Perfect Examples Present Perfect Passive Voice Voice
1 - I have written a letter A letter has been written by me
2 - He has cooked Food Food has been cooked by me
3 - They have Played football Football has been played by them
4 - She has made cake Cake has been made by her
5 - He has learnt English English has been learnt
6 - They have started Generator Generator has been started by them
7 - She has made changes Changes have been made by her
8 - I have repaired L.C.D L.C.D has been repaired by me
9 - I have made Tutorials Tutorials have been made by me
10 - They have implemented rules Rules have been implemented by them
9. Simple Past Tense
was,were+3rd verb
Active Voice Passive Voice
She finished work. Work was finished by her.
She did not finish work.Work was not finished by her.
Did she finish work? Was work finished by her?
10. Formula Of Past Indefinite Tense
Formula Of Active Voice:
Subject + 2nd form of verb + Object
The formula of Passive Voice:
Object + was/were + III form of verb + by+ subject
I wrote a letter. (A.V)
Instruction No.1
Replace the object with subject and subject with an object which is the first rule of active to passive
voice.
Instruction No.2
Place helping verb (was, were) according to subject right after the subject.
Instruction No.3
Change 2nd form of the verb to 3rd form.
The result will be as under:
A letter was written by me. (P.V)
11. He ate bread.
The bread was eaten by him.
.He played cricket.
Cricket is played by him.
.
He took tea.
Tea was taken by him.
They wore a cricket kit.
A Cricket kit was worn by them.
She cleaned her room.
Her room was cleaned by her.
12. .We plucked the flowers yesterday.
The flowers were plucked by us yesterday.
My mother loved me very much.
I was loved by my mother very much.
A plumber repaired all the taps.
All the taps were repaired by a plumber.
Father loved his daughter very much.
His daughter was loved by her father very much.
13. Past Continuous Tense
was,were+being+3rd verb
Active Voice Passive Voice
He was revising his books. His books were being revised by him.
He was not revising his books. His books were not being revised by him.
Was he revising his books? Were his books being revised by him?
14. Steps To Make:First we take the object which in this case is food
Food ...Then we use helping verbs For this tense we have Two (Was / Were) so
because food is single therefore (Was) we will use
Food Was Being ...Verb will come which in this sentence is - (Cook) - (Cooked)
Food Was Being Cooked - Complete !!!
15. Normal Past Continuous Examples Past Continuous Passive Voice Voice
1 - I was writing a letter A letter was being written by me
2 - He was cooking Food Food was being cooked by me
3 - They were Playing football Football was being played by them
4 - She was making cake Cake was being made by her
5 - He was learning English English was being learnt by him
6 - They were starting Generator Generator was being started by them
7 - She is making changes Changes were being made by her
8 - I was repairing L.C.D L.C.D was being repaired by me
16. Past Perfect Tense
had+been+3rd verb
Active Voice Passive Voice
I had completed the assignment.The assignment had been completed by me.
I had not completed the assignment. The assignment had not been completed by
me.
Had I completed the assignment? Had the assignment been completed by me?
17. Steps To Make: First we take the object which in this case is food
Food ...Then we use helping verbs For this tense we have (Had been)
Food Had Been ...Verb will come which in this sentence is - (Cook) - (Cooked)
Food Had Been Cooked - Complete !!!
18. Normal Past Perfect Future Past Perfect Passive Voice
1 - I had written a letter A letter had been written by me
2 - He had cooked Food Food had been cooked
3 - They had Played football Football had been played by them
4 - She had made cake Cake had been made by her
5 - He had learnt English English had been learnt
6 - They had started Generator Generator had been started by them
7 - She had made changes Changes had been made by her
8 - I had repaired L.C.D L.C.D had been repaired by me
9 - I had made Tutorials Tutorials had been made by me
10 - They had implemented rules Rules had been implemented by them
11 - We had taken medicine Medicine had been taken by us
19. Simple Future Tense
will,shall+be+3rd verb
Active Voice Passive Voice
My uncle will pay my tuition fee. My tuition fee will be paid by my uncle.
My uncle will not pay my tuition fee. My tuition fee will not be paid by my uncle.
Will my uncle pay my tuition fee? Will my tuition fee be paid by my uncle?
20. Steps To Make: First we take the object which in this case is food
Food ...Then we use helping verbs For this tense we have (Will Be) Food Will be ...
Verb will come which in this sentence is - (Cook) - (Cooked)
Food Will Be Cooked - Complete !!!
21. I Will write a letter A letter will be written by me
2 - He Will cook Food Food will be cooked
3 - They Will Play football Football will be played by them
4 - She Will make cake Cake will be made by her
5 - He Will learn English English will be learnt
6 - They Will start Generator Generator will be started by them
7 - She Will make changes Changes will be made by her
8 - I Will repair L.C.D L.C.D will be repaired by me
22. Future Perfect Tense
will, shall+ have been+3rd verb
Active Voice Passive Voice
We shall have done our home-work. Our home -work shall have been done by us.
We shall not have done our home-work. Our home -work shall not have been
done by us.
Shall We have done our home –work? Shall our home -work have been done by
us?
23. Important Note
In Present perfect continuous tense,
Past perfect continuous tense,
Future perfect continuous tense,
Future perfect tense,
we use the same sentence in passive voice. It means these tense cannot be changed in
passive form.
24. Modals Auxiliary Verb
in Passive
Voice
Active Voice Passive Voice
Can/ Could Can/Could+
be+ 3
rd
verb
I can solve these sums. These sums can be solved by
me.
I cannot solve these sums. These sums cannot be
solved by me.
Can I solve these sums? Can these sums be solved by
me?
Has to/ Have to Has to/ Have
to+3
rd
verb
He has to complete his
assignment.
His assignment has to be
completed by him?
Must Must+3
rd
verb You must learn this book. This book must be learnt by
you.
May may+be+3
rd
v
erb
I may buy the book. The book may be bought by
me.
Might might+ be+
3
rd
Verb
They might play chess. Chess might be played by
them.
Should should+
be+3
rd
verb
Students should learn all
lessons.
All lessons should be learnt by
students.
Active and passive voice with modals (What is a Modal?)
25. Active and passive voice with Imperative
Sentences
These are the sentences in which we express our feeling and emotions like
command, order, advice, and request.
Rules
1. Lets + new object + be/Not be +past participle or 3rd form.
2. For sentences containing, Request, advice and order, we will use you are
Requested to, advised to and ordered to .
Note: Always remove please and kind if they are given in the sentence.
26. Active Voice Passive Voice
Shut the door. Let the door be shut.
Post the letter at once. Let the letter be posted at once.
Always speak the truth. Let the truth always be spoken.
Do not starve the cow. Let the cow not be starved.
Let him help his brother. Let his brother be helped by him.
Clean your room. Let your room be cleaned.
Learn your lesson. Let your lesson be learnt.
Please do me a favor tonight You are requested to do me a favor
tonight.
Get out of my house. You are ordered to get out of mu house.
Kindly do not smoke in public place. You are requested not to smoke in
public place
27. To make passive voice, first of all you have to use following rules.
1.Change the object into subject. If in object, we have a pronoun (What is a Pronoun?) of object case
convert that by following rules.
me I
You You
her She
them They
us We
him He
itIt
whom Who
28. I by me
You by you
She by her
They by them
We by us
He by him
It by it
Who by whom
2. Change the subject into object. And use by before the object. If in subject, we have a pronoun of
nominative case convert that by the following rules.
29. Some basic rules of active voice and voice are given below
First of all, find subject, object and the main verb it means find SVO .
Convert the object into subject.
Use the suitable helping verb or auxiliary verb according to the tense. If helping verb is given, use
verb as it is. But note that the helping verb used should be according to the object.
Convert the verb into past participle or 3rd form of the verb.
Use the preposition (what is preposition?) “by”.
Convert the subject into object.
30. Passive vs. active voice comparison
Let’s compare the passive and active voices by looking at how they can be used in sentences. In
the following list, each pair of sentences expresses the same meaning with the first using the
active voice and the second using the passive voice.
Active: I bought some new shoes.
Passive: Some new shoes were bought by me.
Active: Our team is winning the game.
Passive: The game is being won by our team.
Active: James met his sister by the gate.
Passive: James’s sister was met by the gate by him.
31. The difference between active and passive
voice
While tense is all about time references, voice describes whether the grammatical
subject of a clause performs or receives the action of the verb. Here’s the formula
for the active voice: [subject]+[verb (performed by the subject)]+[optional object]
Chester kicked the ball.
32. In a passive voice construction, the grammatical subject of the clause receives the
action of the verb.
So, the ball from the above sentence, which is receiving the action, becomes the
subject.
The formula: [subject]+[some form of the verb to be]+[past participle of a transitive
verb]+[optional prepositional phrase]
The ball was kicked by Chester.
33. That last little bit—“by Chester”—is a prepositional phrase that tells you who the performer of the
action is.
But even though Chester is the one doing the kicking, he’s no longer the grammatical subject.
A passive voice construction can even drop him from the sentence entirely:
The ball was kicked.
34. When (and when not) to use the passive
voice
If you’re writing anything with a definitive subject who’s performing an action, you’ll
be better off using the active voice.
And if you search your document for instances of was, is, or were and your page
lights up with instances of passive voice, it may be a good idea to switch to active
voice.
That said, there are times when the passive voice does a better job of presenting
an idea, especially in certain formal, professional, and legal discussions.
Here are three common uses of the passive voice:
35. Reports of crimes or incidents with unknown
perpetrators
My car was stolen yesterday.
If you knew who stole the car, it probably wouldn’t be as big a problem.
The passive voice emphasizes the stolen item and the action of theft.
36. Scientific contexts
The rat was placed into a T-shaped maze.
Who places the rat into the maze? Scientists, duh. But that’s less important than
the experiment they’re conducting. Therefore, passive voice.
37. When you want to emphasize an action itself
and the doer of the action is irrelevant or
distracting:
The president was sworn in on a cold January morning.
How many people can remember off the top of their heads who swears in
presidents?
Clearly the occasion of swearing in the commander in chief is the thing to
emphasize here.
In each of the above contexts, the action itself—or the person or thing receiving
the action—is the part that matters.
That means the performer of the action can appear in a prepositional phrase or be
absent from the sentence altogether.