“A Grammar of Contemporary English” defines Voice as “voice is a grammatical category which makes it possible to view the action of a sentence in two ways, without change in the facts reported”. One and the same idea can often be expressed in two different ways, by means of an active, and by means of a passive construction.
1. Active Voice
The same sentence, then, written in the active voice instead of the passive voice, would look like this: “Public safety officers kept the parade orderly.” The subject officers, the ones who did the keeping, is a separate entity from the direct object parade, the recipient of the action verb kept. Passive voice is often avoided by professional writers because it can make the sentence needlessly longer, more complicated and unclear as well as shifting the emphases away from the sentence subject. While there's nothing grammatically incorrect about passive voice, the general rule of thumb is to strive for less than 2% passive voice. Prefer active voice to passive voice. Use the active voice most of the time. Use the passive voice sparingly. Active voice provides the following advantages: Most readers mentally convert passive voice to active voice. Why subject your readers to extra processing time? By sticking to active voice, readers can skip the preprocessor stage and go. Active Passive - 2. Free Online ACTIVE PASSIVE VOICE CONVERSION Practice & Preparation Tests. Active Passive Voice Converter Online Rating: 9,4/10 1585 votes Because the subject does or 'acts upon' the verb in such sentences, the sentences are said to be in the active voice. Passive voice.
Active voice is used to indicate the grammatical subject of the verb is performing the action or causing the happening denoted by the verb. With the active voice, you learn ‘who’ or ‘what’ is responsible for the action at the beginning of the sentence. In other words, the subject performs the action denoted by the verb. With help of active voice more powerful sentences can be build than passive voice.
Use of active voice:
1. Active voice is used in a clause whose subject expresses the agent of the main verb.
2. Subject can be easily identified by asking ‘who’ or ‘what’ to the verb.
3. Sentences are short and easily understandable.
2. Subject can be easily identified by asking ‘who’ or ‘what’ to the verb.
3. Sentences are short and easily understandable.
Example :
John wrote the letter.
-John (subject) performs the action denoted by the verb (write).
John wrote the letter.
-John (subject) performs the action denoted by the verb (write).
2. Passive Voice
In Passive voice the sentence focus on object i.e. who/what is receiving the action and not on who/what is performing the action. In passive voice, the actor of the of the verb (action) is either understood at the end of the sentence or maybe not told. The passive voice is used in writing facts, truth, lab or technical reports in which the actor is not important or unknown, but the action happening on the object is very important.
Use of passive voice:
1. It is used if it doesn‘t need to know or we don‘t know the actor performing the job.
2. In the end of the clause or sentence “by” is prefixed to know the actor performing the job.
3. It is used if we are more interested in the job than the actors who work.
2. In the end of the clause or sentence “by” is prefixed to know the actor performing the job.
3. It is used if we are more interested in the job than the actors who work.
Example :
The letter was written by John.
- letter receives the action denoted by the write (verb).
- letter receives the action denoted by the write (verb).
Active/Passive voice using Modals:
The modal verbs consist of will, would, can, could, shall, should, may, might, must which are
used with main verbs to express ability, probability, obligation, advice etc.
To convert active voice having modal into passive voice, auxiliary verb “be” is added after modal in sentence.
used with main verbs to express ability, probability, obligation, advice etc.
To convert active voice having modal into passive voice, auxiliary verb “be” is added after modal in sentence.
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How to identify the active / passive voice?
Ask who/what performed the action(verb)? -- if the ‘who or what is at the beginning of the sentence, the sentence is active voice.
Example :
Jack is eating the apple.
Active And Passive Voice
Question will be :Who is eating the apple?
Look for the word “by”, if present it is passive voice.
Look for the word “by”, if present it is passive voice.
Tips to Recognize the Passive Voice:-
In order to recognize that a sentence is in passive voice, watch out for these keywords:
- Be,
- Is/Are + Past Participle form of the verb,
- Was/Were +Past Participle form of the verb,
- was/were + being,
- Has/Have/Had been,
- Will be,
- Being,
- Past Participle form of the verb
Rules for Active to Passive conversion | ||||
Tense | Active voice | Passive voice | ||
Simple Present Tense | Subject + infinitive + object E.g. The grocer sells fresh vegetables. | S + to be + past participle + by object E.g. Fresh vegetables are sold by the grocer. | ||
Present Continuous Tense | Subject + to be (is, am, are) being + present participle + object E.g. My boss is giving many assignments. | Subject + has/have + past participle + object E.g.I have taken him out. | Subject + past participle + object E.g. He built a large house. | S + was/were + past participle + by object E.g. A large house was built by him. |
S + was/were + being + past participle + object E.gShe was cooking dinner. | Subject + will + infinitive + object E.g. I will give you a present. | S + will + be + past participle + by object E.g. A present will be given to you by me. | ||
Future Perfect Tense | ||||
Pronoun number and person table | ||||
Person | I | II | III | |
Number | ||||
Singular | Passive And Active Voice Converter2. He loves me. / I ................... by him.In the simple present tense, we make the passive verb forms by putting is/am/are before the past participle form of the verb. 3. I bought a shirt yesterday. / A shirt ................... by me.In the simple past tense, we make the passive forms by putting was/were before the past participle form of the verb. 4. I ate an apple. / An apple ...................... by me.In the simple past tense, we make the passive verb from by putting was / were before the past participle form of the verb. 5. I have invited all of my friends. / All of my friends ....................... by me.In the simple present tense, we make the passive verb forms by putting has/have + been before the past participle form of the verb. 6. I am reading a novel. / A novel ...................... by me.In the present continuous tense, we make the passive verb forms by putting is/am/are + being before the past participle form of the verb. 7. Janet will give you a present. / You ................... a present by Janet.In the simple future tense, we make the passive verb forms by putting will be before the past participle form of the verb. 8. She will have helped me. / I ........................ by her.In the future perfect tense, passive verb forms are made by putting will have been before the past participle form of the verb. 9. I was watching a movie. / A movie ....................... by me.In the present continuous tense, we make the passive verb forms by putting was / were + being before the past participle form of the verb. 10. They carried the patient home. / The patient ................... home.In the simple past tense, we make the passive verb from by putting was / were before the past participle form of the verb. 11. Do it at once. / ........................ at once.When we convert imperatives into the passive, we use the structure 'let + object + be + past participle'. 12. Do not beat the dog. / Let the dog ........................Answers1. The boy killed the spider. / The spider was killed by the boy.
2. He loves me. / I am loved by him. 3. I bought a shirt yesterday. / A shirt was bought by me. 4. I ate an apple. / An apple was eaten by me. 5. I have invited all of my friends. / All of my friends have been invited by me. 6. I am reading a novel. / A novel is being read by me. 7. Janet will give you a present. / You will be given a present by Janet. 8. She will have helped me. / I will have been helped by her. 9. I was watching a movie. / A movie was being watched by me. 10. They carried the patient home. / The patient was carried home. 11. Do it at once. / Let it be done at once. 12. Do not beat the dog. / Let the dog not be beaten.
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