Active Voice Passive/
Passive voice
In active sentences, the subject acts upon its verb. Or we can say in most English sentences with an action verb, the subject performs the action denoted by the verb.
Example.
Sara wrote a descriptive essay.
Sara (subject) as she is doing the writing(verb).
Passive voice means that a subject is a recipient of a verb’s action. Or we can say that the subject is acted upon by the verb.
Example:
A descriptive essay was written by Sara.
A descriptive essay(subject) was written (verb) by Sara.
Note in this sentence how the subject-verb relationship has changed.
I hope after studying these examples you know the difference between both types of narration.
Now we will learn how to change Active into passive voice and vice versa. Let me tell you an easy way to find out whether a statement is active or passive.
Focus on the subject in each type of sentence. Is the subject performing the action denoted by the verb? If yes, then you must have an active voice statement. If you feel that the subject of the sentence is not the doer of the action, But the recipient of the action.
Rules To Follow:
The structural formula for active voice.
Subject + Verb + Object
The structural formula for passive voice
Object + Verb + Subject
Let me reinforce that an Active Voice statement always begins the subject followed by the verbs and object respectively. On the contrary, a passive voice statement begins with the object, followed by the verb and then the subject is placed at last.
Rules of Writing Active | Passive Voices
To change an active voice statement to passive voice., some common structural changes are applied. The change also depends upon the tenses each statement are presenting.
The main rule is that the passive voice statements always take the third form of the verb, also called Past Participle.
Use the word “By” before the subject in the passive sentence.
Example:
They sang a melodious song.
A melodious song was sung by them.
Pronouns [I, she, he, they, we] are changed to [me, her, him, them, us] respectively.
Exercise:
Change active voice sentences into passive and passive into active.
I read a book.
She boils potatoes.
She likes apples.
The boy is climbing the wall.
We did not hear a sound.
They have bought a house.
The board has given me a gold medal.
He praised the boy for his courage.
The teacher was helping the students.
Why were they beating the boy?
They have not done their job.
A car ran over an old man.
He had told me to do it.
They had not done their home task.
We shall have finished our work by March next.
He took away my books.
The child was frightened by the sudden noise.
Milk is used by us for making cheese.
Why is the chair being mended by him?
She was asked to stay in bed by the doctor.
The thief was caught by them.
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