Active voice and passive voice rules

Active Voice

When using the active voice, the subjects are the ones performing the action.

God loves all men.
Birds build nests.
Dog eats bones.
In these three sentences the subject does the action. Hence they are in the active avoice.

Passive Voice

In the passive voice, the verb takes an object.

All men are loved by God.
Nests are built by birds.
Bones are eaten by dog.

These sentences are in passive voice. The Passive voice is used in English
(a) To stress the action done rather than the doer of the action
(b) If the doer is unknown
(c) When it is more convenient.
 

First move the object in the active voice to the subject position. Use the appropriate ‘be’ verb
(is/am/are/was/were/has been/have been/shall be/will be)

Active Voice	Passive Voice
Columbus discovered America.	America was discovered by Columbus
Who did this work?	By whom was this work done?
Open the window	Let the window be opened
He is writing a letter	A letter is being written by him
The work will be finished by me	I will finish the work
Somebody cleaned the room yesterday	The room was cleaned yesterday.

How to form passive forms of verbs?

Tense	Active	Passive
Present Tense	go, goes	is gone (Singular) are gone (Plural)
Past Tense	went	was went (Singular) were went (Plural)
Future Tense	will / can / may / must => go	will / can etc. => be gone
Present Continuous Tense	am going is going	is being going (Singular) are being going (Plural)
Past Continuous Tense	are going was going were eating	was being gone (Singular) were being gone (Plural)
Future Continuous Tense	will be going shall be going	No Passive Voice
Present Perfect Tense	have gone has gone	have been gone (Plural) has been gone (Singular)
Past Perfect Tense	had gone	had been gone
Future Perfect Tense	shall have gone will have gone	will have been gone
Present Perfect Continuous Tense	has been going have been going	No Passive Voice
Past Perfect Continuous Tense	had been going	No Passive Voice
Future Perfect Continuous Tense	shall have been going will have been going	No Passive Voice

Changes of Pronouns:

Active Voice	Passive Voice
I	me
we	us
you	you
he	him
she	her
it	it
they	them

Rules for changing Active Voice into Passive Voice:

·         Identify the subject, the verb and the object: SVO

·         Change the object into subject

·         Put the suitable helping verb or auxiliary verb. In case helping verb is given, use the same. But note that the helping verb given agrees with the object.

·         Change the verb into past participle of the verb.

·         Add the preposition "by"

·         Change the subject into object.

Active Voice	Passive Voice
I write a letter	A letter is written by me
We must keep the rule	The rule must be kept by us
You bought a book	A book have been bought by you
He closed the window	The window was closed by him
She was writing letters	Letters were being written by her
I had posted a letter	A letter had been posted by me
I do not drink tea	Tea is not drunk by me
She does not eat a mango	A mango is not eaten by her
He will have finished his work	The work will have been finished by him
They are digging a well	A well is being dug by them

Imperative Sentence :
If the given sentence in the active voice is in the imperative, to get the passive voice use ‘Let’. Hence
Passive Voice = Let + Object + be + Past Participle

Active Voice	Passive Voice
Help me	Let me be helped
Sing a song	Let a song be sing
Open the door	Let the door be opened
Don’t eat this fruit	Let not this fruit be eaten

Questions in the Passive :
If the question in the Active Voice begins with a Helping verb the Passive voice must also begin with a suitable helping verb. Supposing the question begins with ‘Wh or How’ form (what, when, how ...) the Passive Voice must begin with the same.

Active Voice	Passive Voice
Are you writing a letter?	Is a letter being written by you?
Is she beating the child?	Is the child beaten by her?
Will you accept the position?	Will the position be accepted by you?
Who broke the window?	By whom was the window broken?
Why did you write such a letter?	Why was such a letter written by you?
Where can you hide this box?	Where can this box be hidden by you?

If a sentence contains two objects namely Indirect Object and Direct Object in the Active Voice, two forms of Passive Voice can be formed.

·         She brought me a cup of coffee. (AV)
I was brought a cup of coffee by her. (PV) (or)
A cup of coffee was brought [to] me by her. (PV)

·         The teacher teaches us grammar. (AV)
We are taught grammar by the teacher. (PV) (or)
Grammar is taught [to] us by the teacher. (PV)

·         They made him king. (AV)
He was made king by them. (PV)

Infinitive and Gerund :

·         I want to shoot the tiger. (AV)
I want the tiger to be shoot. (PV)

·         I remember my father taking me to the theatre. (AV)
I remember being taken to the theatre by my father. (PV)

While changing Passive Voice into Active Voice, we must keep in mind all the rules of the Active Voice in the reverse order. We come across sentences in the Passive Voice without subject or agent. In this case, supply the appropriate subject.

To decide whether the given passive voice sentence is in passive voice, any one of the following constructions should be present.

·         1. is, was ,are, were, am + past participle

·         2. be + past participle

·         3. being + past participle

·         4. been + past participle

·         5. Let ...be + past participle

Changing Passive Voice to Active Voice.

Passive Voice	Active Voice
The thief was finally arrested	The police finally arrested the thief
We were taught grammar	The teacher taught us grammar
My purse has been stolen	Somebody has stolen my purse
The patients were looked after	The doctor looked after the patients

·         Last year, the Green-India scheme was announced by the Government.

·         Rare plants are found in Silent Valley.

In the first sentence, the doer/agent is explicitly mentioned because the doer is important in that sentence. But in the second sentence it is not so, because either the agent or doer of the action is too obvious or unknown.

The passive construction is quite common in scientific / technical / business writing. In these types of objective writing the emphasis is usually on the action or process or thing that is described. So the ‘by’ phrase is generally omitted in these writings. It is called Impersonal Passive.

·         They say that might is right.
It is said that might is right.

·         One finds mosquitoes everywhere.
Mosquitoes are found everywhere.

·         He gave us a cheque.
A cheque was given to us.