Identify Active and Passive voice with examples
Voice:
Person-1: What happened?
Person-2: My bicycle has been stolen.
Read the sentences in column A and compare each of them with column B.
A | B |
I compose an email | An email is composed by me |
He eats a mango | A mango is eaten by him |
Bashir helped the poor man | A poor man was helped by Bashir. |
We know them | They were known to us |
The mother is feeding the baby | The baby is being fed by the mother. |
Although the two sentences in the same row express the same meaning, their structures are different. Have you noticed that once the doer is focused and once the action? There are two types of voice in English; active and passive. When the doer is focused, we use active voice and when the action is focused, we use the passive voice.
There are some rules for active and passive voices. Look at them:
The subject (e.g., I, he, Bashir, we, the mother in the previous activity) of verbs in column A becomes the objects (me, him, Bashir, us, the mother) In column B.
The main verbs (e.g., compose, eat, help, know, feed) becomes past participle (composed, eaten, helped, known, fed)
Auxiliary verb ‘be’ (am, is, are, was, were) is used before the past participles in each sentence according to the tense of the verbs. You will see later that auxiliary verb such as have, has, had, has bee, have bee, had been, is being, are being, am being, was being, were being, will be, can be, will be being, etc. Are used before the past participle.
Usually ‘by’ is used before the object of the passive sentences.
Note: only sentences with ‘action verbs’ (verbs which indicate some work or action) can be changed to passives. But sentences with stative verbs which indicate some condition like be, have, cannot be changed into passive form.
Voice of Present Tense:
Active: I write an application.
Passive: An application is written by me.
Structure: Subject + be verbs (am,is,are)+ past participle of the main verb+ by+obj
Present indefinite questions and negative
Look at the table below to understand the change of active to passive:
Active | Passive |
Do you play cricket? | Is cricket played by you? |
What do you want? | What is wanted by you? |
Why does he call me? | Why am I called by him? |
Don't you sing a song? | Isn't a song sung by you? |
Voice of Present Continuous:
Active: I am eating an apple
Passive: An apple is being eaten by me.
Structure: Sub+be verb+being+past participle+by+obj.
Example:
Are you composing an e-mail? | Is an e-mail is being composed by you? |
Aren’t you writing a letter? | Isn't a letter being written by you? |
Voice of Present Perfect Tense:
Active: I have eaten a banana.
Passive: A banana has been eaten by me.
Structure: sub+have/has+been+past-participle+by+obj
Present perfect questions:
Structure: have/has+sub+been+past-participle+by+obj.
Active: Have you made it?
Passive: Has it been made by you?
Active: Has he not read the novel? ( or hasn’t he read the novel?)
Passive: Has the novel not been read by him? Or hasn’t the novel been read by him?
Voice of Past Indefinite:
Active: I called you.
Passive: You were called by me.
Structure: sub+be+past-participle+by+obj.
Past simple questions:
Structure: Be+sub+past-participle+by+obj+; if there are two objects, one becomes the subject and the other is put after the past participle. See the example below
Active: Did you show me the picture? (Here the objects are; me, picture)
Passive: Was the picture shown me by you? / Was I shown the picture by you?
Active: Didn’t I give you the book?
Passive: Wasn’t the book given you by me? / Weren’t you given the book by me?
Active: what did you say?
Passive: what was said by you?
Voice of Past continuous:
Active: I was reading a novel.
Passive: A novel was being read by me.
Active: Martin was calling me.
Passive: I was being called by Martin.
Structure: sub+be verb(was/were)+being+past-participle+by+obj.
Voice of Past Perfect:
Active: you had done the work.
Passive: The work had been done by you.
Active: they had given me the dictionary.
Passive: the dictionary had been given to me by them/I had been given a dictionary by them.
Structure: sub+had+been+past-participle+by+obj.
Voice of Future Simple:
Active: I will do the sum.
Passive: The sum will be done by me.
Active: they will play the match
Passive: the match will be played by them.
Structure: sub+will be+ past-participle+by+obj.
Voice of future simple tense:
Active: who will help me?
Passive: by whom will I be helped?
Active: what will he do?
Passive: What will be done by him?
Voice of future continuous:
Active: I will be eating apples.
Passive: Apples will be being eaten by me.
Active: we will be playing chess.
Passive: Chess will be being played by us.
Passive with Modals:
Active: I can do this.
Passive: This can be done by me.
Active: He would drive the car.
Passive: the car would be driven by him.
Active: we should help the distress.
Passive: the distress should be helped by us.
Passive with imperative sentences:
Active: Do the work
Passive: let the work be done.
Active: help the poor.
Passive: let the poor be helped.
Structure: let+sub+be+past-participle+by+obj.
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