Class Notes

Class: VI Topic: About Active and Passive

(to be written in English notebook)
Subject: ENGLISH
Date- 12.12.2020

Definition of Voice in Grammar

Voice can be mainly classified into two types.

B.
Active Voice- The sentence is said to be in active when the subject is the doer of
action or subject plays actively in a sentence.

Passive voice- When the verb speaks of its subject of being acted upon or having
something done to it,it is said to be in Passive voice. The subject becomes passive
here.

How can I tell if a sentence is in active or passive voice?

To identify whether a sentence is active or passive, identify whether the

sentence’s subject is the actor or the object of action:
Active: The subject of the sentence performs the sentence’s action.

The subject, ‘she’, is the actor who makes the mistakes. Therefore, the sentence
is in active voice.
Passive-The subject becomes the object or receiver of action.

The subject, ‘many mistakes’ are the result of an action taken by a different
actor. Therefore,the sentence is in passive voice.
Basic steps for changing the active voice to passive voice are as follows-

1.Identification of subject,verb and object

2. Interchange the position of subject with object.
3. The ‘be’/helping verbs/auxiliary verbs in accordance with the tense of the
sentence, person and number of the subject should be used after the N.S
4. The Past participle form or V3 form of the verb is to be used after the ‘be’
verbs.
5. The preposition ‘by’ is to be added before the N.O.(newly formed object)

While changing the active voice to passive , different ‘be’ verbs are used in
different tenses.
The following table shows the change in forms of verb ‘to be’/auxiliary verbs in
different tenses- (Passive voice chart)
Tense Indefinite/simpl continuous perfect
e
Present is/am/are + verb is/am/are + has/have + been
in third form being + verb in + verb in third
i. is seen third form form
ii. am seen i. is being seen i. has been seen
iii. are seen ii. am being seen ii. have been
iii. are being seen seen
past was/were + verb was/were + had + been +
in third form being + verb in verb in third
i. was seen third form form
ii. were seen i. was being seen i. had been seen
ii. were being
seen
future will/shall + be + — No change will/shall + have
verb in third been + verb in
form third form
i. will be seen i. will have been
ii. shall be seen seen
ii. shall have
been seen

More examples-
1. Active- Shreya sings a beautiful song.
Passive- A beautiful song is sung by Shreya.
2. Active- The Prime Minister was addressing the nation with his speech.
Passive- The Nation was being addressed by the Prime Minister in his speech.

3. Active- Someone has stolen my camera.

Passive- My camera has been stolen.

Content completely prepared from home.