Voice- Active and Passive

 ACTIVE AND PASSIVE VOICE 

 1. Transitive verbs (verbs that take object for the completion of their meaning) have both active and passive forms. 

Look at the given table. 

3. The meaning will not be changed when we change a sentence into its passive. Only the structure gets changed. 

 Active: Devkota wrote Munamadan. 

Passive: Munamadan was written by Devkota. 

4. When we change an active sentence into its passive form, the object of the active sentence goes to the position of subject and the subject of the active sentence goes to the end and we use ‘by+subject’ of the passive sentence. 

 Active: He wrote a story. 

 Passive: A story was written by him. 

5. If we want to show the person or thing doing the action we use by. We use ‘by+agent’ when it’s important to mention. If the subjects of the active sentences are uncertain like: someone, people, they etc ., we don’t mention them. 

 Acitve: A dangerous dog attacked her. 

Passive: She was attacked by a dangerous dog. 

 Active: They are building a new ring road. 

 Passive: A new ring road is being built. 

 6. The tense remains the same but we use be+past participle. Look at the structures in the passive forms of different sentences in the following table. 

7. The forms of the be verb (singular: is/was, plural: are/were) to be used in passive depends on the new subject. 

 Active: He writes a story. 

 Passive: A story is written by him. 

(Here ‘is’ is used because ‘a story’ is a singular subject) 

 8. The same rule applies to other verbs as well. 

 Active: She has put all the things in the box. 

 Passive: All the things have been put in the box. 

(Here in the active sentence the subject ‘she’ is singular. So ‘has’ is used but in the passive sentence the new subject ‘all the things’ is plural and we have used ‘have’ and since it’s in perfect tense we have used ‘been’ in passive.) 

 9. The rules are the same for the phrasal verbs as well but the whole phrasal verb, not only the verb, has to be moved with the verb. 

10. If there are two objects, we can make passive by both the objects but look at the example below: Active: He gave me a book. 

 Passive: I was given a book by him. 

 A book was given to me by him. 

11. A question in active remains question in passive but look at the position of question words and the position of verbs in the following examples. 

 Active: Who invented the telephone? 

 Passive: Who was the telephone invented? 

 Active: Did you write the letters? 

 Passive: Were the letters written by you? 

 12. Look at the imperative sentence in the passive structure. 

 Active: Close the door. 

 Passive: Let the door be closed. 

 13. If an active sentence is negative, the passive will also be negative but be careful with the subjects like: nothing, no one, nobody etc. 

 Active: Nobody did the task. 

 Passive: The task was not done. 

 Active: She didn’t write the memo. 

 Passive: The memo wasn’t written by her. 

14. Look at the following examples to learn the special structures of passive sentences. 

Active: People say that Henry is in love with Clarie. 

Passive: Henry is said to be in love with Clarie. : 

                It is said that Henry is in love with Clarie.

Exercises 

 Change the following sentences as indicated in brackets: 

 1. They will give papers in exam. (into passive) 

 2. Play the Madal. (into passive) 

 3. He has taken this photo. (into passive) 

 4. Stop the car. (into passive) 

 5. Nobody hurt him. (into passive) 

 6. A tanker knocked over a cyclist yesterday. (into passive) 

 7. She has given me a pen. (into passive) 

 8. The poachers are killing wild animals. (into passive) 

 9. They have written this book. (into passive)

10. No one has seen that film. (into passive) 

 11. Munamadan was written by Devkota. (into active) 

 12. People are destroying the jungle. (into passive) 

 13. Food is being prepared by my sister. (into active) 

14. They gave me some sweets. (into passive) 

15. Was it made by Punam? (into active) 

16. Who told you about the accident? (into passive) 

17. Karate will have been taught. (into active) 

18. How was the tiger trapped? (into active) 

19. This hurt him badly. (into passive) 

20. The government should ensure security. (into passive) 

21. What questions did the teacher ask you? (into passive) 

22. Open the door. (into passive) 

23. He doesn’t eat mangoes. (into passive)

24. I don’t like people asking me stupid questions. (into passive)

25. The police arrested a man last night. (into passive) 

26. They clean the streets every day. (into passive) 

27. They didn’t give me anything. (into passive) 

28. The wind blew away all the papers. (into passive) 

29. They are building a new ring road. (into passive) 

30. The teacher has to do the preparation. (into passive)