ACTIVE VOICE AND PASSIVE VOICE

Haridha Sree C
18BMB018

Active voice means that a sentence has a subject that acts upon its verb. Passive
voice means that a subject is a recipient of a verb’s action. You may have learned
that the passive voice is weak and incorrect, but it isn’t that simple. When used
correctly and in moderation, the passive voice is fine.
In English grammar, verbs have five properties: voice, mood, tense, person, and
number; here, we are concerned with voice. The two grammatical voices are active
and passive.
Active voice
When the subject of a sentence performs the verb’s action, we say that the sentence
is in the active voice. Sentences in the active voice have a strong, direct, and clear
tone. Here are some short and straightforward examples of active voice.
Active voice examples
Monkeys adore bananas.
The cashier counted the money.
The dog chased the squirrel.
All three sentences have a basic active voice construction: subject, verb, and
object. The subject monkey performs the action described by adore. The subject
the cashier performs the action described by counted. The subject the dog performs
the action described by chased. The subjects are doing, doing, doing—they take
action in their sentences. The active voice reminds us of the popular Nike slogan,
“Just Do It.”

Passive voice
A sentence is in the passive voice, on the other hand, when the subject is acted on
by the verb. The passive voice is always constructed with a conjugated form of to
be plus the verb’s past participle. Doing this usually generates a preposition as
well. That sounds much more complicated than it is—passive voice is actually
quite easy to detect. For these examples of passive voice, we will transform the
three active sentences above to illustrate the difference.
Passive voice examples
Bananas are adored by monkeys.
The money was counted by the cashier.
The squirrel was chased by the dog.
Let’s take a closer look at the first pair of sentences, “Monkeys adore bananas” and
“Bananas are adored by monkeys.” The active sentence consists of monkeys
(subject) + adore (verb) + bananas (object). The passive sentence consists of
bananas (object) + are adored (a form of to be plus the past participle adored) + by
(preposition) + monkeys (subject). Making the sentence passive flipped the
structure and necessitated the preposition by. In fact, all three of the transformed
sentences above required the addition of by.
Rules for converting active voice into passive voice:

1. Active and Passive Voice Rules for Present Simple Tense

Examples:
Active: He reads a novel.
Passive: A novel is read.

Active: He does not cook food.

Passive: Food is not cooked by him.

Active: Does he purchase books?

Passive: Are books purchased by him?
 2. Active and Passive Voice Rules for Present Continuous Tense

Examples:
Active: Esha is singing a song.
Passive: A song is being sung by Esha.

Active: Kritika is not chopping vegetables.

Passive: Vegetables are not being chopped by Kritika.

Active: Is Ritika buying a table?

Passive: Is a table being bought by Ritika?

Active: They are serving poor people.

Passive: Poor people are being served by them.

3. Active and Passive Voice Rules for Present Perfect Tense

Examples:
Active: Nitesh has challenged her.
Passive: She has been challenged by Nitesh.

Active: Radhika has not written an article.

Passive: An article has not been written by Radhika.

Active: Have they left the apartment?

Passive: Has apartment been left by them?
Active: She has created this masterpiece.
Passive: This masterpiece has been created by her.

4. Active and Passive Voice Rules for Past Simple Tense

Examples:
Active: Reema cleaned the floor.
Passive: The floor was cleaned by Reema.

Active: Aisha bought a bicycle.

Passive: A bicycle was bought by Aisha.

Active: Naman called my friends.

Passive: My friends were called by Naman.

Active: I saved him.

Passive: He was saved by me.

Active: Miraya paid the bills.

Passive: The bills were paid by Miraya.

5. Active and Passive Voice Rules for Past Continuous Tense

Examples:
Active: Nitika was painting the wall.
Passive: The wall was being painted by Nitika.
Active: Manish was repairing the car.
Passive: The car was being repaired by Manish.

Active: Were you reciting the poem?

Passive: Was the poem being recited?

Active: She was baking the cake.

Passive: The cake was being baked by her.

Active: She was watching me.

Passive: I was being watched by her.

6. Active and Passive Voice Rules for Past Perfect Tense

Examples:
Active: Misha had cleaned the floor.
Passive: The floor had been cleaned by Misha.

Active: Vidhi had not received the parcel.

Passive: The parcel had not been received by Vidhi.

Active: Vishal had solved the doubt.

Passive: The doubt had been solved.

Active: Had they caught the thief?

Passive: Had the thief been caught by them?

Active: I had paid fifty thousand.

Passive: Fifty thousand had been paid by me.

7. Active and Passive Voice Rules for Future Simple Tense

Examples:
Active: Kriya will sew the bag.
Passive: The bag will be sewed by Kriya.

Active: Disha will not arrange the things.

Passive: The things will not be arranged by Disha.

Active: Will you mop the floor?

Passive: Will the floor be mopped by you?

Active: They will post the letter.

Passive: The letter will be posted.

Active: Reena will save money.

Passive: Money will be saved by Reena.

8. Active and Passive Voice Rules for Future Perfect Tense

Examples:
Active: They will have brought the toy.
Passive: The toy will have been brought by them.

Active: Nimesh will not have changed the table cover.

Passive: The table cover will not been changed by Nimesh.

Active: Will she have written the notes.

Passive: Will the notes have been written by her?

There is no Passive Voice formation for these tenses-

 Present Perfect Continuous Tense

 Past Perfect Continuous Tense

 Future Perfect Continuous Tense

 Future Continuous Tense