Active and Passive Voice With Useful Methods and Examples

Learn Active & Passive Voice with useful methods and example sentences. This lesson is going to help you to understand How to form Active Voice to Passive Voice sentences with beginners to Advanced level methods. This lesson contains changing Active & Passive Voice sentences with the help of Tenses.

Definition of ACTIVE VOICE: A form or set of forms of a verb in which the subject is typically the person or thing performing the action and which can take a direct object.

e.g. she loved him as opposed to the passive form he was loved.

Definition of PASSIVE VOICE: A form or set of forms of a verb in which the subject undergoes the action of the verb.

e.g. They were killed as opposed to the active form he killed them.

Table of Contents

Changings of Active & Passive Voice:

Level: Beginner

Transitive verbs have both active and passive forms:

Active Voice	Passive Voice
The hunter killed the lion.	The lion was killed by the hunter.
Someone has cleaned the windows.	The windows have been cleaned.

Passive forms are made up of the verb be with a past participle:

	be	Past participle
English	is	spoken	all over the world.
The windows	have been	cleaned.
Lunch	was being	served.
The work	will be	finished	soon.
They	might have been	invited	to the party.

If we want to show the person or thing doing the action, we use by:
She was attacked by a dangerous dog.
The money was stolen by her husband.

Level: Intermediate

The passive infinitive is made up of to be with a past participle:

The doors are going to be locked at ten o’clock.
You shouldn’t have done that. You ought to be punished.

We sometimes use the verb get with a past participle to form the passive:

Be careful with that glass. It might get broken.
Peter got hurt in a crash.

We can use the indirect object as the subject of a passive verb:

Active Voice	Passive Voice
I gave him a book for his birthday.	He was given a book for his birthday.
Someone sent her a cheque for a thousand euros.	She was sent a cheque for a thousand euros.

We can use phrasal verbs in the passive:

Active Voice	Passive Voice
They called off the meeting.	The meeting was called off.
His grandmother looked after him.	He was looked after by his grandmother.
They will send him away to school.	He will be sent away to school.

Level: Advanced

Some verbs which are very frequently used in the passive are followed by the to-infinitive:

be supposed to	be expected to	be asked to	be told to
be scheduled to	be allowed to	be invited to	be ordered to

John has been asked to make a speech at the meeting.
You are supposed to wear a uniform.
The meeting is scheduled to start at seven.

Changing Active & Passive Voice sentences with the help of Tenses:

Tense	Active Voice	Passive Voice
Present Simple	She delivers the letters.	The letters are delivered.
Past Simple	She delivered the letters.	The letters were delivered.
Future Simple	She will deliver the letters.	The letters will be delivered.
Present Continuous	She is delivering the letters.	The letters are being delivered.
Past Continuous	She was delivering the letters.	The letters were being delivered.
Going to	She is going to deliver the letters.	The letters are going to be delivered.
Present Perfect	She has delivered the letters.	The letters have been delivered.
Past Perfect	She had delivered the letters.	The letters had been delivered.
Infinitive	She has to deliver the letters.	The letters have to be delivered.

Active & Passive Voice sentences:

Active Voice	Passive Voice
They gave a term paper to all the students and asked for them to be delivered in the best way.	All students were given a term paper and asked to deliver them in the best way.
We frequently encounter such situations in our school and take some precautions to ensure discipline.	These kinds of situations are frequently encountered in our school and some measures are taken to ensure discipline.
I understand the difficulty of your situation, but people should share with others what they feel in such situations.	I understand the difficulty of the situation, but what is felt in such situations should be shared with others.
After preparing the meals, we wanted to drink a delicious coffee, but they said that we should go to the market because we could not find coffee at home.	After the meals were prepared, we were asked to drink a delicious coffee, but since there was no coffee at home, we were told that we should go to the market.
Monkeys really like bananas, and by using this fact, scientists have organized many experimental environments.	Bananas are really loved by monkeys, and many experimental environments have been organized by scientists using this fact.
Our work was really successful, but we could not prevent a small error at the end of the work. It was very sad for everyone to experience this situation.	The work done was really successful, but a small error could not be prevented at the end of the work. Everyone was very upset by this situation.

Active Voice	Passive Voice
After counting the money, he turned to me and said that he did not want to talk more about this issue.	After the money was counted, I was contacted and was told not to talk more about this subject.
After finishing his homework, he quickly checked and managed to upload his homework to the system. That’s why his friends expect the teacher to give him a really high grade.	After the assignment was finished by him, it was quickly checked and uploaded to the system. Therefore, it is thought by his friends that a high grade will be given to him by the teacher.
If you want to use the TV smoothly after repairing it, you should periodically maintain it and contact the technical support team if you have a problem.	In order for the television to be used without any problems after it is repaired, it should be periodically maintained and the technical support team should be contacted in case of a problem.
Did they tell you that we were talking to him?	Have you been told that we are talking to him?

Active & Passive Voice | Infographics

Revision of the Rules to form the Passive Voice

Tenses	Active	Passive
Present Indefinite	1st form of the verb + s/es Do/does (not) + V1	Is/am/are + V3
Past Indefinite	V2 Did (not) + V1	Was/Were + V3
Present Continuous	Is/am/are (not) + V1 + ing	Is/am/are (not) + being + V3
Past Continuous	Was/were (not) + V1 + ing	Was/were (not) + being + V3
Present Perfect	Has/have (not) + V3	Has/ Have (not) been + V3
Past Perfect	Had (not) + V3	Had (not) + been + V3
Future Perfect	Will/Shall (not) have + V3	Will/shall (not) have + been + V3
Modal Verb	Will, Shall, would, should, can, could, may, might, must, ought to + V1	Will, Shall, would, should, can, could, may, might, must, ought to + be + V3
Infinitive	To + V1	To be + V3