Active Voice and Passive Voice

Active voice and Passive voice

                                      

Active voice:

            An active voice is a sentence structure that has the person or thing doing the action as the subject. 

                                     

                      (eg)  Arun kicked the ball.

                           She plucked the rose.

                           The police arrested the driver.

Passive voice:

               

            If the action denoted by the verb is not performed by the subject of the sentence we call it as passive voice.

                      (eg) The ball was kicked by Arun.

                              A rose was plucked by her.

                              The driver was arrested by the police.

Change from active to passive voice:

Active Voice	Passive Voice
He	By him
She	By her
They	By them
I	By me
We	By us

 

Change in tense: 

	Present tense	Past tense
Singular	Am       is	was
Plural	Are	were

Simple present tense: 

Active voice →   Subject + present verb +object

Passive voice → object + am/is/are + verb + subject

             (eg) He tells stories (A)

                     Stories are told by him (P)

Present continuous tense:

Active voice →   Subject + am/is/are +present verb + ing form

Passive voice →  object + am/is/are + being + verb + subject

             (eg) We are building a new house (A)

                     A new house is being built by us (P)

Present perfect tense:

Active voice →   Subject + have/has + past participle form of verb

Passive voice →  object + has been/have been +verb + subject

             (eg) They have written many essays (A)

                     Many essays have been written by them (P)

Present perfect continuous tense:

               This tense form has no passive form.

Simple past tense:

Active voice →   Subject + past verb

Passive voice →  object + was/were + verb + subject

             (eg) He invited Sita (A) 

                     Sita was invited by him (P)

Past continuous tense:

Active voice →   Subject + was/were + present verb +ing form

Passive voice →  object + was/were + being +verb +subject

           (eg) The children were writing the essay (A)

                   The essay was being written by the children (P)

Past perfect tense:

Active voice →   Subject + had + past participle of verb

Passive voice →  object + had been + verb + subject

           (eg) They had arranged a tour (A)

                   A tour had been arranged by them (P)

Past perfect continuous tense:

               This tense form has no passive form. 

 

Simple future tense:

Active voice →   Subject + will/shall + present verb 

Passive voice →  object + will/shall + be+ verb + subject

          (eg) Tom will settle the matter (A)

                  The matter will be settled by Tom (P)

Future continuous tense:

               This tense form has no passive form.

Future perfect tense:

Active voice →   Subject + will/shall + have + past participle

Passive voice →  object + will/shall + have been + verb +subject

         (eg) They will have arranged the books (A)

                 The books will have been arranged by them (P)

Future perfect continuous tense:

               This tense form has no passive form.

Exercise :

1. Tom is singing a song

        A song is being sung by Tom

2. Brutus stabbed Ceasar 

        Ceasar was stabbed by Brutus

3. He has drawn two pictures

        Two pictures have been drawn by him

4. Does she speak English?

        Is English spoken by her?

5. Do the hounds kill the fox?

        Is the fox killed by the hounds?