Voice Change
Active Voice: root form of the verb, sometimes with -s or -es (Rule)
Passive Voice: is/are/am + past participle form of the verb (Rule)
| ACTIVE VOICE | PASSIVE VOICE |
| 1. Manoj drinks milk every morning. | Milk is drunk by Manoj every morning |
| 2. Children love sweets. | Sweets are loved by children. |
| 3. Does the grocer sell dal? | Is dal sold by the grocer? |
| 4. Does he still love me? | Am I still loved by him ? |
Passive Voice: is/am/are + being + past participle form of the verb (Rule)
| ACTIVE VOICE | PASSIVE VOICE |
| 1. I am eating a mango. | A mango is being eaten by me. |
| 2. the boys are picking some flowers. | Some flowers are being picked by the boys. |
| 3. Are they disturbing the girl? | Is the girl being disturbed by them? |
Passive Voice: has/have +been + past participle form of the verb (Rule)
| ACTIVE VOICE | PASSIVE VOICE |
| 1. Poonam has written this poem. | This poem has been written by Poonam. |
| 2.Have the children eaten all the chocolate? | Have all the chocolates been eaten by the children? |
Passive Voice: was/were + past participle form of the verb.(Rule)
| ACTIVE VOICE | PASSIVE VOICE |
| 1.Siwani stole my mobile. | My mobile was stolen by Siwani. |
| 2.Did Prachi tell the truth ? | Was the truth told by Prachi? |
Passive Voice: was/were + being + past participle form of the verb.(Rule)
| ACTIVE VOICE | PASSIVE VOICE |
| 1.The president was delivering the speech. | The speech was being delivered by the President. |
| 2.Was the gardener watering the flowers? | Were the flowers being watered by the gardener? |
Passive Voice: had + been + past participle form of the verb.(Rule)
| ACTIVE VOICE | PASSIVE VOICE |
| 1.We had already received your gift. | Your gift had already been received by us. |
| 2.Had the farmers reaped the crops? | Had the crops been reaped by the farmers ? |
Passive Voice: shall be/will be + past participle form of the verb.(Rule)
| ACTIVE VOICE | PASSIVE VOICE |
| 1.We shall arrange a picnic. | A picnic will be arranged by us. |
| 2.Shall we help her? | Will she be helped by us? |
Passive Voice: will/shall + have been + past participle form of the verb.(Rule)
| ACTIVE VOICE | PASSIVE VOICE |
| 1.The chemist will have closed the shop by ten o’clock. | The shop will have been closed by the chemist by ten o’clock. |
Interrogative: Wh-Questions
Carefully study the use of interrogative pronouns while changing active sentences into passive.
The ‘wh’ interrogative active sentence changes to passive voice according to following rules:-
Rule 1: The ‘Wh’ word remains at the same position.
Rule 2: The ‘Wh’ word remains as it is except whom and who.
Rule 3: Who changes to By whom and Whom changes to Who.
The rest of the sentence is changed to passive voice according to the basic rules.
| ACTIVE VOICE | PASSIVE VOICE |
| 1.What are you writing? | What is being written by you ? |
| 2.What makes you angry? | By what are you made angry ? |
| 3.Which girl helped you ? | By which girl were you helped ? |
| 4.Whom are you teaching ? | Who is being taught By you ? |
| 5.Who teaches you English? | By whom are you taught English? ? |
Rules for Active – Passive Voice Conversions
➩ Rule 1: Identify the (S+V+O) Subject, Verb and object in the active sentence to convert to passive voice .
Active: Rita wrote a letter.
(Subject + Verb + Object)
Rule 2: Interchange the object and subject with each other, i.e. object of the active sentence become the subject of the passive sentence.
Passive: A letter was written by Rita. (Object) + (auxiliary verb) + (past participle) + (by subject).
Rule 3: While conversion of Active voice sentence to Passive voice sentence, the pronoun used in the sentence also changes in the following manner.