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Active and Passive Voice Rules With Examples
Active and Passive Voice Rules With Examples : Hello Friends! Today, we are going to explain an important topic of English Grammar : Active and Passive Voice. Remember, English language is incomplete without knowledge of Passive Voice. In competitive exams, many questions are asked about Active Passive voice.
You should have good knowledge about Voice. Because it has a big role in writing and speaking English. Today, we are going to tell easy tricks about active passive voice. With this you will be able to change the voice of any sentence very easily. So let’s learn : What is Active and Passive Voice, its Rules With Examples
What is Voice : How to understand Voice
To understand the Passive voice better, try to observe following sentences carefully.
- Ram writes a letter.
- A letter is written by Ram.
After reading these two sentences, you see that both these sentences are expressing the same meaning.
- Sentence – 1 : Ram is the doer of the sentence and Letter is the Object of the sentence. This sentence states that Subject (Ram) does something (writing letters) himself. The verb (write) of this sentence is in Active voice.
- Sentence – 2 : the Letter is the doer (which was the object in sentence – 1) while Ram has become the object (which was the doer in sentence – 1). This sentence states that something is done for the subject. The verb (write) of this sentence is in Passive voice.
Thus we learned that A verb can manifest an action in two ways :
- By making activate the subject.
- By making activate Object and leaving the subject inactive or passive.
This feature or quality of a verb is called voice.
Types of Voice :
These voices are of two types. Which is as follows :
- Active Voice
- Passive voice
Which we are going to study in detail :
Active Voice :
When the subject of a verb is active or the doer of the action. that verb is in the active voice.
Passive Voice :
When the subject of a verb is inactive or the receiver of the action. that verb is in the passive voice. In this, the action is done by someone else. Sometimes it is not necessary to mention the doer that performs the action. Such verb is in passive voice.
Types of Verb :
Friends! To understand the voice well, we have to understand the kinds of verbs. Let me tell you that there are two types of verb :
- Transitive Verb and
- Intransitive Verb
To understand Transitive and Intransitive Verb properly, let us see some examples:
- Radha eats a mango.
- Krishna plays.
- Sentence – 1 : The verb “eats” being performed by Subject (Radha). it has an effect on the object (mango). That is, when verbs take object after them, such verbs are called Transitive Verb.
- Sentence – 2 : The verb “plays” being performed by Subject (Krishna). it has no effect on the object. That is, when verbs do not take object after them, such verbs are called Intransitive Verb.
Change of Voice :
Friends! Now you must have known about voice and its types. Now we learn how to make voice from active to passive or vice versa. For this you observe given table below:
| Active Voice | Passive Voice |
|---|---|
| He sings a song. | A song is sung by him. |
| She was buying a book. | A book was being bought by her. |
| I will drive a car. | A car will be driven by me. |
| They have cooked food. | Food has been cooked by them. |
| Sachin can speak English. | English can be spoken by Sachin. |
When you read these sentences carefully, you will find some things in common, like:
- Subject takes the place of object or vice versa and Helping Verb (to be) is used according to New subject.
- Secondly, when making passive, “by” is used immediately before the object (which is the subject of active tense).
- When making passive from active, the IIIrd form of the verb is essentially invoked and
Thus, you may have understood a few things broadly from these sentences.
Important Rules for changing Active Voice to Passive Voice :
Now we are taking a look at the important rules of change of voice so that everything becomes clear to you.
- When a sentence is changed from active to passive, the object of that sentence is replaced by the subject. And the helping verb now comes according to the new subject.
- In active voice, the subject of the sentence is placed as an object at the end of the sentence while making it passive. And “by” is used immediately before it.
- Friends! You have to remember that many times when making passive voice, there is no need to put by + object at the end of the sentence. Such as : by us (we), by them (They), by people etc.
- The passive voice always uses the IIIrd form of the main verb.
- When changing from active to passive, the helping verb “to be” is properly used between the subject and the verb in the sentence.
Then you saw that these are some rules, keeping in mind, you will be able to change of voice easily. Before proceeding further, we are providing you a table so that you can properly use the helping verb – to be when you change a sentence from active tense to passive :
Rules of Change of Voice :
| Tense | Present | Past | Future |
|---|---|---|---|
| Indefinite | is / am / are + V-3rd | was / were + V-3rd | will be / shall be + V-3rd |
| Continuous | is / am / are + being + V-3rd | was / were + being + V-3rd | – |
| Perfect | has / have been + V-3rd | had been + V-3rd | will have / shall have been + V-3rd |
| P. Continuous | – | – | – |
Friends ! You should remember this table well so that you do not have any problem in changing of voice. One thing to note here is that passive voice is not formed in Future continuous and Present / Past / Future Perfect continuous.
Structure of Change of Voice :
Now we are going to tell you a golden structure as usual, with the help of which you will be able to change any active tense into passive:
| Active Voice : | Sub. (doer of action) + H.V. + M.V. + Obj. (receiver of action) |
| Passive Voice : | Obj. (receiver of action) + H.V. (to be) + M.V.3rd + By + Sub. (doer of action). |
Friends! We have told you all the important rules. Now based on these, we learn to convert active voice into passive voice in all types of Tense.
Present Indefinite Tense :
In the Present Indefinite Tense, the helping verb “is / am / are” is used to change in passive voice and immediately after that the 3rd form of the verb is also used such as :
| Sr. | Active Voice | Passive Voice |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | He drinks water. | Water is drunk by him. |
| 2. | She speaks Hindi. | Hindi is spoken by her. |
| 3. | They read books. | Books are read (by them). |
| 4. | I teach English. | English is taught by me. |
| 5. | You sings a song. | A song is sung by you. |
Present continuous Tense :
In the Present continuous Tense, the helping verb “is / am / are” is used to change in passive voice and immediately after that being + 3rd form of verb” is also used such as :
| Sr. | Active Voice | Passive Voice |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | He is drinking water. | Water is being drunk by him. |
| 2. | She is speaking Hindi. | Hindi is being spoken by her. |
| 3. | They are reading books. | Books are being read (by them). |
| 4. | I am teaching English. | English is being taught by me. |
| 5. | You are singing a song. | A song is being sung by you. |
Present Perfect Tense :
In the Present Perfect Tense, the helping verb “has/have” is used to change in passive voice and immediately after that been + 3rd form of verb” is also used such as :
| Sr. | Active Voice | Passive Voice |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | He has drunk water. | Water has been drunk by him. |
| 2. | She has spoken Hindi. | Hindi has been spoken by her. |
| 3. | They have read books. | Books have been read (by them). |
| 4. | I have taught English. | English has been taught by me. |
| 5. | You have sung a song. | A song has been sung by you. |
Past Indefinite Tense :
In the Past Indefinite Tense, the helping verb “was/were” is used to change in passive voice and immediately after that the 3rd form of the verb is also used such as :
| Sr. | Active Voice | Passive Voice |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | He drank water. | Water was drunk by him. |
| 2. | She spoke Hindi. | Hindi was spoken by her. |
| 3. | They read books. | They were read (by them). |
| 4. | I taught English. | English was taught by me. |
| 5. | You sang a song. | A song was sung by you. |
Past continuous Tense :
In the Past continuous Tense, the helping verb “was/were” is used to change in passive voice and immediately after that being + 3rd form of verb” is also used such as :
| Sr. | Active Voice | Passive Voice |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | He was drinking water. | Water was being drunk by him. |
| 2. | She was speaking Hindi. | Hindi was being spoken by her. |
| 3. | They were reading books. | Books were being read (by them). |
| 4. | I was teaching English. | English was being taught by me. |
| 5. | You was singing a song. | A song was being sung by you. |
Past Perfect Tense :
In the Past Perfect Tense, the helping verb “had” is used to change in passive voice and immediately after that been + 3rd form of verb” is also used such as :
| Sr. | Active Voice | Passive Voice |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | He had drunk water. | Water had been drunk by him. |
| 2. | She had spoken Hindi. | Hindi had been spoken by her. |
| 3. | They had read books. | Books had been read (by them). |
| 4. | I had taught English. | English had been taught by me. |
| 5. | You had sung a song. | A song had been sung by you. |
Future Indefinite Tense :
In the Future Indefinite Tense, the helping verb “will be / shall be “ is used to change in passive voice and immediately after that the 3rd form of the verb is also used such as :
| Sr. | Active Voice | Passive Voice |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | He will drink water. | Water will be drunk by him. |
| 2. | She will speak Hindi. | Hindi will be spoken by her. |
| 3. | They will read books. | Books will be read (by them). |
| 4. | I shall teach English. | English will be taught by me. |
| 5. | You will sing a song. | A song will be sung by you. |
Future continuous Tense :
Remember that the verb cannot be changed to passive voice in Future continuous tense.
Future Perfect Tense :
In the Future Perfect Tense, the helping verb “will have/shall have” is used to change in passive voice and immediately after that been + 3rd form of verb” is also used such as :
| Sr. | Active Voice | Passive Voice |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | He will have drunk water. | Water will have been drunk by him. |
| 2. | She will have spoken Hindi. | Hindi will have been spoken by her. |
| 3. | They will have read books. | Books will have been read (by them). |
| 4. | I shall have taught English. | English will have been taught by me. |
| 5. | You will have sung a song. | A song will have been sung by you. |
- Note : As we have already said that Perfect continuous tense cannot be changed in passive voice.
Active Tenses and Their Passive Equivalents :
Friends! To understand Active and Passive Voice Rules With Examples very well, you must first have knowledge of tense. You should know which structure of tense is followed in active voice? Only then you will be able to find out which tense is given in any sentence and which passive structure we have to follow to make its passive voice.
If you are not aware of tense and you want to learn tense easily, then you can learn by clicking on the link given below.
Only after learning the tense, you will be able to understand the voice properly. Let’s do a comparative study of the verbs used in active and passive to explain you :
Comparative study of Active and Passive Voice Rules With Examples :
| Present Tense | Active Voice | Examples | Passive Voice | Examples |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Indefinite | V-Ist + s / es | sings | is / am / are + V-3rd | is sung |
| Continuous | is / am / are + V-Ist + ing | is / am / are singing | is / am / are + being + V-3rd | is / am / are being sung |
| Perfect | has / have + V-3rd | has / have sung | has / have + been + V-3rd | has / have been sung |
| Perfect Continuous | – | – | – | – |
| Past Tense | Active Voice | Examples | Passive Voice | Examples |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Indefinite | V-IInd | sang | was / were + V-3rd | was / were sung |
| Continuous | was / were + V-Ist + ing | was / were singing | was / were + being + V-3rd | was / were being sung |
| Perfect | had + V-3rd | had sung | had + been + V-3rd | had been sung |
| Perfect Continuous | – | – | – | – |
| Past Tense | Active Voice | Examples | Passive Voice | Examples |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Indefinite | will / shall V-Ist | will / shall sing | will / shall + be + V-3rd | will / shall be sung |
| Continuous | – | – | – | – |
| Perfect | will have / shall have + V-3rd | will have / shall have sung | will have / shall have + been + V-3rd | will have / shall have been sung |
| Perfect Continuous | – | – | – | – |
If you want the voice to fit in your mind forever, then you should remember this table again and again. If you understand these rules once and practice it. You will never forget the chapter of voice.
Friends! We will study some important rules of passive voice and how to make passive voice of other types of sentences in a subsequent notes. So that you do not panic to convert any kind of sentences into passive voice.
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