Passive voice is used when...
We don’t know who is the doer of the action or
It’s not important to know who is the doer of the action or
The action happened is more important than the doer of the action or
When the focus is on the outcome or the result and not the doer of the action or
When the object is more important than the subject
Active voice is used when...
The subject / doer of the action is important
Sentence structures
Active voice: Subject + verb phrase + object /complement +....
Passive voice: Object + helping verb + form of ‘to be’ if any + main verb in the 3rd form/ ‘- en’ form/ perfect form + by + subject +...
Rules of conversion
• If there are two objects in the given active voice sentence, it is preferable to use the indirect object (living) as a subject in the passive voice sentence.
• Change the form of the pronoun interchanging the subject and object during the conversion. Ex. I = me, he = him etc.
• Main verb in passive voice is always in perfect form/ - en form
• Use the following information for verb phrase conversion into passive voice
#Simple Present Tense = am/is/are (Helping verb in passive voice)
#Simple Past Tense = Was/were (Helping verb in passive voice)
#Present Continuous Tense = Am/is/are (Helping verb in passive voice) + Being (Form of ‘to be’ in passive voice)
#Past Continuous Tense = Was/ were (Helping verb in passive voice) + Being (Form of ‘to be’ in passive voice)
#Present Perfect Tense = Have/has (Helping verb in passive voice) + Been (Form of ‘to be’ in passive voice)
#Past Perfect Tense =Had (Helping verb in passive voice) + Been (Form of ‘to be’ in passive voice)
#Future tense or Modal Auxiliary sentence = Will/ shall/ can/ could/ may/ might/ must/... etc. (Helping verb in passive voice, whichever is used in active voice) + Be (Form of ‘to be’ in passive voice)
Exercises for practice: (Change the voice.)
1. Roma helped the children by funding their education.
2. Rajan gave them a lot of work to complete.
3. They helped each other to overcome the problems.
4. Rakesh did not invite Suresh for the party.
5. They decided it on their own.
6. Manali supported Arjun during the difficult phase of his life.
7. Leena trained the kids to solve their difficulties on their own.
8. Many activities were planned for the children.
9. Many solutions were rejected due to the limitations in implementing them.
10. Well calculated risks reduce the possible damage.
Answers
1. The children were helped by Roma by funding their education.
2. They were given a lot of work to complete by Rajan. / A lot of work was given to them by Rajan to complete.
3. They were helped by each other to overcome the problems.
4. Suresh was not invited for the party by Rakesh.
5. It was decided by them on their own.
6. Arjun was supported by Manali during the difficult phase of his life.
7. The kids were trained by Leena to solve their difficulties on their own.
8. They planned many activities for the children.
9. They rejected many solutions due to the limitations in implementing them.
10. The possible damage is reduced by the well calculated risks.
