voice

Definition of voice

the form of the verb that shows whether the subject of a sentence does an action or has an action done to it is called voice.

There are two types of voice

1.Active voice

when the subject of the verb is the doer of the action, the verb is said to be in the active voice.

2.Passive voice

when the subject of the verb is acted upon the verb is said to be in the passive voice.

lets read some example -

active: cats catch mice.

passive: mice are caught by cats.

active: the police will arrest the murderer.

passive: the murderer will be arrested by the police.

active: they will help us.

passive: we shall be helped by them.

 Rule for changing active voice to passive voice

1.the subject of the active voice becomes the object of the passive voice.

2.the object of the active voice become the subject of the passive voice.

3.we use the past participle form of the verb in the passive voice.

    Convert the active voice to passive voice

present tense

                       simple present tense

active: he makes tea.

passive: tea is made by him.

                     present continuous tense

active: he is making tea.

passive: tea is being made by him.

                       present perfect tense

active: he has made tea.

passive: tea has been made by him.

past tense

                       simple past tense

active: he made tea.

passive: tea was made by him.

 past continuous tenses

active: he was making tea.

passive: tea was being made by him.

past perfect tense

active: he had made tea.

passive: tea had been made by him.

future tense

                    simple future tense

active: he will make tea.

passive: tea will be made by him.

                future continuous tense

active: he will be making tea

passive : no passive

                   future perfect tense

active: he will have made tea.

passive: tea will have been made by him.

always remember future continuous tense and perfect continuous tense have no passive voice.

Two objects of the verb

when there are two object in the active voice. we can use either of these object as the subject of the passive voice.

active: he teaches us english.

passive: we are taught englidh by him.

passive: English is taught to us by him.

Prepositional sentence

in some sentences in the passive voice another appropriate preposition is used place of by.

lets read some example

active: you know him.

passive: he is known to you.

active: the girl pleased me.

passive: I was pleased with the girl.

active: the glass contains milk.

passive: milk is contained in the glass.

Imperative sentences

imperative sentences show command, request Or advice. we use let in the passive voice.

active: open the door.

passive: let the door be opened.

active: never tell a lie.

passive: let a lie never be told.

Verb followed by modals

modals like can, must, should, need etc.do not undergoes any change in the active or passive voice.be is used between modals and verb.

active: I can do it.

passive: it can be done by me.

active: may I open the window.

passive: may the window be opened by me.

active: should I buy this book?

passive: should this book be bought by me?

Interrogative sentence

the auxiliary verb do, does and did in an interrogative sentence with the verb in active voice, change is, am ,are ,was ,were in the passive voice.

active: do they watch the news every morning?

passive: is the new watched by them every morning?

active: did ram paint this picture?

passive: was this picture painted by ram?