Active and Passive Voice: Rules for Every Tense with Examples

Voice shows whether the subject of a sentence does the action or receives it. In the active voice the subject is the doer: “Ram wrote a letter.” In the passive voice the receiver of the action becomes the subject: “A letter was written by Ram.” Lok Sewa papers often ask students to change the voice of a sentence, so this note gives the steps, a full tense table and the special cases.

1. Basic steps for changing active to passive

Take the active sentence “Sita cooks rice.”

1. Find the object of the active verb (rice) and make it the new subject.
2. Use the correct form of be according to the tense and the new subject (is).
3. Change the main verb to its past participle (V3) (cooked).
4. Put the old subject after by, if it needs to be mentioned (by Sita).

Result: “Rice is cooked by Sita.”

The general formula is: Object + be (in the right tense) + V3 + by + subject.

Only transitive verbs (verbs that have an object) can be changed into the passive. Sentences with intransitive verbs such as sleep, go, arrive, happen and die have no passive form: “The baby sleeps” cannot become passive.

Pronoun changes

When a pronoun moves from subject to object position, or the other way round, its form changes:

Example: “She invited us.” becomes “We were invited by her.”

2. Passive forms for each tense

Remember the helping words:

• Continuous tenses add being: is/are/was/were being + V3.
• Perfect tenses add been: has/have/had/will have been + V3.

The present perfect continuous, past perfect continuous, future continuous and future perfect continuous are normally not changed into the passive in exam grammar, because the forms become very awkward.

Agreement: the form of be must agree with the new subject. “Ram plants trees” becomes “Trees are planted by Ram”, not “is planted”, because trees is plural.

Negatives keep not after the first helping verb: “Gita did not sign the form” becomes “The form was not signed by Gita.”

3. Questions

Yes/no questions begin with the helping verb in both voices:

• “Did Ram write the letter?” becomes “Was the letter written by Ram?”
• “Has Sita finished the work?” becomes “Has the work been finished by Sita?”
• “Does Gita sing this song?” becomes “Is this song sung by Gita?”

Wh- questions keep the question word at the front:

• “What did Hari buy?” becomes “What was bought by Hari?”
• “Why did he break the glass?” becomes “Why was the glass broken by him?”
• “Who wrote this note?” becomes “By whom was this note written?”

Note that “who” as the subject changes to “by whom” in the passive.

4. Imperative sentences

Commands, requests and advice are changed with let or with words like requested, ordered, advised.

• Command with an object: “Open the window.” becomes “Let the window be opened.”
• Negative command: “Do not tease the dog.” becomes “Let the dog not be teased.”
• Polite request: “Please help me.” becomes “You are requested to help me.”
• Order: “Bring the file at once.” can become “You are ordered to bring the file at once.”

The pattern with let is: Let + object + be + V3.

5. Modal verbs

Modals (can, could, may, might, must, should, would, shall, will) are followed by be + V3 in the passive:

For the perfect of a modal, use modal + have been + V3: “Someone must have stolen the bag” becomes “The bag must have been stolen.”

6. Verbs with two objects

Verbs such as give, send, show, tell, teach, offer and lend often have two objects: a person (indirect object) and a thing (direct object). Either object can become the subject of the passive.

Active: “Ram gave Sita a book.”

• “Sita was given a book by Ram.” (person as subject; this is usually more natural)
• “A book was given to Sita by Ram.” (thing as subject; add to before the person)

Another example: “The teacher taught us English.” becomes “We were taught English by the teacher” or “English was taught to us by the teacher.”

7. When the passive is used

The passive is preferred when:

• the doer is unknown: “My mobile was stolen on the bus.”
• the doer is unimportant or obvious: “Rice is grown in the Tarai.” “The thief was arrested.” (by the police is obvious)
• the action or result is more important than the doer: “A new bridge was opened in our village last year.”
• the writing is formal or official, as in notices, reports and rules: “Applications must be submitted before Friday.” “Mobile phones are not allowed in the exam hall.”

In such cases the by-phrase is dropped. Vague doers like “people”, “someone”, “they” or “somebody” are almost always left out: “People speak Nepali here” becomes “Nepali is spoken here.”

8. Common mistakes

Some passive verbs take prepositions other than by: “He is known to everyone.” “I am interested in music.” “She was pleased with the result.” “We were surprised at the news.” “The jar is filled with water.”