ACTIVE VOICE AND PASSIVE VOICE

1. Voice:
Voice is that form of the transitive verb that shows whether the subject of the sentence is the doer
of the action or has the action done to it. For example:
‘Mohan played football.’—This sentence is said to be in the active voice. Here, Mohan is the
subject and he is the doer of the action, i.e. ‘played football’. The action of the subject is
transferred to the object ‘football because Mohan has done something to the ‘football’. The
passive voice of this sentence is:
Football was played by Mohan.
Here the subject is ‘football’ which was ‘object’ in the active sentence. So here something is
done to the subject ‘football’, i.e. it suffers the action done by something or someone.
2. Rules for the Change of Voice:
(i) The object of the active sentence becomes the subject of the verb in the passive voice. The
preposition ‘by’ is put before it.
(ii) The main verb of the active sentence changes into the past participle.
(iii) The form of the verb to be (am, is, are, was, were, being, been) is placed before the main
verb according to the tense. The auxiliary verb is changed according to the new subject in
number and person.

 4. Change in tenses from Active  Voice to Passive Voice:     

5. Change of Voice in the Simple Present:

6. Past Simple Tense

7. Simple Future

8. Present Progressive

9. Past Progressive

10. Present Perfect Tense

11. Past Perfect Tense

12. Future Perfect Tense

13. Imperative Sentence

Imperative sentences express command/order, request, suggestion, etc. While changing
imperative sentences into the passive voice, we use verbs like advise, request, order, etc.

14. Interrogative Sentences

15. Modal Auxiliaries

The form of the passive sentences will be: modal + be + past participle:
16. Prepositional Verbs

17. Quasi – Passive

18. Miscellaneous Examples

Exercise (Solved)
Change the following sentences into Passive Voice.   
(i) He has missed the train.
Answer: The train has been missed by him.
(ii) Do they speak French?
Answer: Is French spoken by them?
(iii) Was he reading a book?
Answer: Was a book being read by him?
(iv) Compose this letter.
Answer: Let this letter be composed.
(v) Where did you buy this pen from?
Answer: From where was this pen bought by you?
(vi) Who wrote this speech?
Answer: By whom was this speech written?
(vii) One should respect one’s elders.
Answer: Elders should be respected.
(viii) I did not praise anybody.
Answer: Nobody was praised by me.
(ix) He hurt his leg in an accident.
Answer: His leg was hurt in an accident.
(x) Someone was knocking at the door.
Answer: The door was being knocked by someone.