Active and Passive Voice: Rules, Examples, and Conversion Guide

Active and Passive Voice: Understanding the mechanics of active and passive voice is essential for students at every level, from primary school to competitive examinations. Mastering voice is a fundamental pillar of English grammar. In this guide, we will break down these concepts in detail. To begin, we must first define what "Voice" actually means in a grammatical context.

What is Voice of Verb?

The voice of a verb describes whether the subject of the sentence performs the action or receives it. For instance, let’s look at the following examples.

1. Ram helps Hari.
2. Hari is helped by Ram.

In the first sentence, the verb form indicates that the subject is the doer of the action, meaning the subject has actively performed an action. Consequently, a verb like helps is categorized as being in the active voice.

In the second sentence, the verb form shows that the action is being performed upon the subject, meaning the subject has received the action. Therefore, a verb like helped is referred to as being in the passive voice.

Types of Voice of Verb

There are two primary types of voice:

• Active Voice
• Passive Voice

Rules for Conversion of Active and Passive Voice 

The standard rules for converting a sentence from active voice to passive voice are as follows:

Rule 1: First, identify the Subject (S), Verb (V), and Object (O) within the active sentence to prepare for the conversion.

Rule 2: Interchange the subject and the object. The object of the active sentence becomes the new subject of the passive sentence.

Rule 3: Transform the base verb of the active sentence into its past participle form (the third form of the verb) for the passive sentence.

Rule 4: Place the word "by" before the original subject in the passive construction.

Rule 5: Update any pronouns in the sentence to match their new grammatical roles.

Rule 6: Ensure you use the correct auxiliary (helping) verbs consistent with the tense.

Active and Passive Voice in Tenses form

Passive voice is formed using the appropriate tense of the auxiliary verb followed by the past participle. Refer to the table below for examples:

Important Note: Passive voice cannot be formed for the following tenses: Present Perfect Continuous, Past Perfect Continuous, Future Perfect Continuous, and Future Continuous.

Exercise of Active and Passive Voice

Practice Exercise: Read each sentence and identify its voice.

1. Vineeta sings beautiful songs.
2. Riya helps everyone.
3. Pooja was being beaten by her teacher.
4. Lucky is helped by Steve
5. The builder is building the tower.
6. The woodcutter cuts the wood.
7. The man dropped the ashes into the river.
8. The parrot was shot by the naughty boy.
9. By whom was German taught to you?
10. Vipin lost the money.

Answers:

1. Active | 2. Active | 3. Passive | 4. Passive | 5. Active | 6. Active | 7. Active | 8. Passive | 9. Passive | 10. Active