Lesson nr.

13,14 and 15 Date: 27th March 2020

Topic: ACTIVE AND PASSIVE VOICE

The voice of a verb tells whether the subject of the sentence performs or receives the action.

i) Birds build nests.

ii) Nests are built by birds.

Types of Voice:
1. Active Voice: the subject performs the action expressed by the verb.
Usage: when more clarity and straightforward relation is required between verb and subject.
2. Passive Voice: the subject receives the action expressed by the verb.
Usage: when the action is the focus, not the subject or when the doer is unknown.

Rules of Conversion from Active to Passive Voice:

1. Identify the subject, the verb and the object: S+V+O
2. Change the object into subject
3. Put the suitable helping verb or auxiliary verb
4. Change the verb into past participle of the verb
5. Add the preposition "by“
6. Change the subject into object

Example:

Active Voice: Sameer wrote a letter. (Subject) + (verb) + (object).

Passive Voice: A letter was written by Sameer. (Object) + (auxiliary verb) + (past participle) +
(by subject).

Changing active to passive voice

1.Simple Present Tense: Passive Voice: Oranges are being eaten by

Active Voice: She writes a letter. them.
Passive Voice: A letter is written by her.
3.Present Perfect Tense:
2.Present Progressive Tense: Active Voice: Has she completed the work?
Active Voice: They are eating oranges. Passive Voice: Has the
work been completed by her?
4.Simple Past Tense:
Active Voice: He did not buy a book.
Passive Voice: A book was not bought by
him.
5.Past Progressive Tense:
Active Voice: She was washing a shirt.
Passive Voice: A shirt was being washed by
her.

6.Past Perfect Tense:

Active Voice: They had won the match.
Passive Voice: The match had been won by
them.

7.Simple Future Tense:

Active Voice: She will write a poem.
Passive Voice: A poem will be written by
her.

8. Future Perfect Tense:

Active Voice: He will have received the
letter.
Passive Voice: The letter will have
been received by him

1
 Changing Active to Passive Voice using verb “to keep”

Tense Active voice Passive voice Active sentence Passive equivalent

Simple present keep is kept I keep the butter in the fridge. The butter is kept in the fridge.

Present continuous is keeping is being kept John is keeping my house tidy. My house is being kept tidy.

Simple past kept was kept Mary kept her schedule Mary's schedule was kept
meticulously. meticulously.

Past continuous was keeping was being kept The theater was keeping a seat for A seat was being kept for you.
you.

Present perfect have kept have been kept I have kept all your old letters. All your old letters have been
kept.

Past perfect had kept had been kept He had kept up his training regimen His training regimen had been
for a month. kept up for a month.

Simple Future will keep will be kept Mark will keep the ficus. The ficus will be kept.

Conditional Present would keep would be kept If you told me, I would keep your If you told me, your secret
secret. would be kept.

Conditional Past would have would have been I would have kept your bicycle here Your bicycle would have been
kept kept if you had left it with me. kept here if you had left it with
me.

Present Infinitive to keep to be kept She wants to keep the book. The book wants to be kept.

Perfect Infinitive to have kept to have been Judy was happy to have kept the The puppy was happy to have
kept puppy. been kept.

Present Participle & keeping being kept I have a feeling that you may be I have a feeling that a secret
continuous keeping a secret. may be being kept.

Perfect Participle having kept having been kept Having kept the bird in a cage for so The bird, having been kept in a
long, Jade wasn't sure it could cage for so long, might not
survive in the wild. survive in the wild.

2
Reading and comprehension:

1. The Story of the Hamburger

The hamburger is the most eaten food in the whole world. The first hamburgers were
made and sold in Connecticut in 1895 by an American called Louis Lassen. Louis called them
hamburgers because he was given the recipe by sailors from Hambourg in Germany.
Hamburgers became a favourite meal in America in the early part of the twentieth century. Their
popularity grew even more after the Second World War, when they were bought in large
quantities by teenagers who preferred fast food to family meals. A drive-in hamburger
restaurant was opened in 1948 by two brothers Richard and Maurice Mc Donald in San
Bernardino, California. Since then over 25,000 Mcdonald's restaurants have been
opened worldwide and now 35 million MacDonald's hamburgers are eaten every day in 115
countries from America to Mozambique.

Exercises:

i. Rewrite the sentences using the passive.

1. We don’t allow mobile phones in the theatre.
___________________________________________________________________________
2. A ten year old boy will sing the first song at the concert tonight.
___________________________________________________________________________
3. Who wrote that play?
___________________________________________________________________________
4. You must show your ticket at the door.
___________________________________________________________________________
5. Please don’t make too much noise or we will ask you to leave the room.
___________________________________________________________________________
6. They created that comedy show in the USA.
___________________________________________________________________________
7. They will broadcast the Edinburgh festival online this year.
___________________________________________________________________________
8. They should have awarded her an Oscar for her performance in that film.
___________________________________________________________________________

3
 9. Will they postpone the concert?
___________________________________________________________________________
10. Quentin Tarantino is going to direct a new film.
____________________________________________________________________________

ii. Complete newspaper reports with an appropriate passive form of the verbs in
brackets.
An unknown twenty-two year old man……………(find) unconscious last night in an abandoned
farmhouse. Police……………..(search) the area looking for more clues. If anyone has any
information on this case, please call the police hotline.

Levels of pollution in Beijing are 15 times higher than they should be. This has caused the
government to take drastic measures.

Factories and building sites………….(force) to close, cars …………(order) off the roads and
children ………………(tell) not to go to school.

War and Peace, which…………….(write) by Leo Tolstoy, (read) in Russia over a four-day
period. More than 1,300 people in over 30 cities will be taking part in this marathon public
reading, where one volume………..(read) each day.