Active Voice and Passive Voice

Voice of Verbs
Voice is the form of the verb which shows whether the subject does the action or
the action is done to the subject.

There are two voices:

1. Active Voice
2. Passive Voice
1. Active Voice: indicates that the subject is the doer of the action, or the subject
acts.
Ex: The police killed the thief.
2. Passive Voice: shows that the subject is acted upon, or the subject is impressed
by the action of the verb.
Ex: The thief was killed by the police.

Passive Formation
To change an active sentence to passive, we take the following steps:
1. The object of an active sentence becomes the subject of the passive sentence
and the subject of the active sentence becomes the object of the passive
sentence.
Ex: Active: I bought a car.
Passive: A car was bought by me.
2. The object pronoun of an active sentence becomes the subject pronoun of the
passive sentence and subject pronoun of the active sentence becomes the
object pronoun of the passive sentence.
Ex: Active: She called me.
Passive: I was called by her.
3. After the subject we use a form “Be” before past participle.
Active: He studies English.
 Passive: English is studied by him.
Note: sometimes we can also use “Get” instead of “Be” in passive voice.
Ex: He was killed by Sabir. He got killed by Sabir.
4. We always use past participle in passive whether the tense is present, past,
future, or continuous.
Active: She breaks the chair.
Passive: The chair is broken by her.
Active: She broke the chair.
Passive: The chair was broken by her.
Active: She will break the chair.
Passive: The chair will be broken by her.
Active: They are painting the room.
Passive: The room is being painted by them.
5. If the subject of the active sentence is necessary or important to be mentioned,
it is used after the preposition “By”.
Active: Rahim killed him.
Passive: He was killed by Rahim.
6. In continuous tenses “being” is used after Be or its derivatives and before past
participle.
Active: He was washing the car.
Passive: The car was being washed by him.

Tenses in Passive Voice

We have different word order for different tenses in passive voice.
Active Voice Passive Voice
Present simple tense S + V + O. S + Tobe + Past Participle
We study English English is studied by us.
Present continuous Tense S + Be + V + Ing + O. S + Be + Being + Past P.
We are studying Eng. English is being studied by us.
Present perfect tense S + Have/Has + P.P +O. S + Have/has +Been + P.P
We have studied English. English has been studied by
us.
Past simple tense S + V2 + O. S + Was/Were + P.P.
We studied English. English was studied by us.
Past continuous tense S + Was/Were +V + Ing + O. S+Was/were +Being +PP.
We were studying English. English was being studied by us.
Past perfect tense S + Had +P.P + O. S +Had +Been + P.P.
We had studied English. English had been studied
by us.
Future simple tense S + Will + V1 + O. S + Will + Be + P.P.
We will study English. English will be studied by
us.
S + be + going to + v + o. s + Tobe + going to + be + P.P.
We are going to study English. English is going to be studied by us.
Future perfect tense S +Will + Have + P.P + O. S + Will + Have + been + P.P
We will have studied English. English will have been studied by us.
Note: The present perfect continuous, past perfect continuous, future
continuous and future perfect continuous tenses are not used in passive voice.

Imperative Sentences in Passive Voice

For changing imperative sentences into passive voice, see the following formulas.

POSITIVE IMPERATIVE:
Let + Ob + Be + Past Participle.
Active: Close the window.
Passive: Let the window be closed.
Active: Open the door.
Passive: Let the door be opened.
Active: Help the poor.
Passive: Let the poor be helped.
NEGATIVE IMPERATIVE:
Let + Ob + Not + Be + Past Participle.
Active: Don’t close the window.
Passive: Let the window not be closed.
Active: Don’t teach them.
Passive: Let them not be taught.
Active: Don’t clean the room.
Passive: Let the room not be cleaned.

Auxiliary (Modal, Semi Modal and Marginal auxiliary) Verbs in Passive Voice
For present modal auxiliary verbs we have the following formula in passive voice.
Sub + Modals + Be + Past Participle.
Active: He will draw the map tomorrow.
Passive: The map will be drawn tomorrow by him.
Active: She can drive the car.
Passive: The car can be driven by her.
Active: He may buy the car.
Passive: The car may be bought by him.
Active: We shall buy a horse.
Passive: A horse shall be bought by us.
Active: He used to write poems.
Passive: Poems used to be written by him.
Active: Walid is going to paint the kitchen.
Passive: The kitchen is going to be painted by Walid.

Past Forms of Modal Auxiliary in Passive Voice

To structure the past form of modal auxiliary verbs, we have the below formula.

S + Modal + Have + Been + Past participle

Active: He should have taught the class yesterday.
Passive: The class should have been taught by him yesterday.
Active: Mansoor could have solved the crossword puzzle.
Passive: The crossword puzzle could have been solved by Mansoor.
Active: The Mullah needn’t have delayed the congregation.
Passive: The congregation needn’t have been delayed by the Mullah.
Active: He would have won the prize.
Passive: The prize would have been won by him.

Forming Question in Passive Voice

Generally speaking, there are two kinds of questions.
1. Yes/No questions that begin by auxiliary verbs
2. Wh-questions that begin by one of the wh-question words
 Yes/No question in Passive Voice
A. If an active sentence begins with the form of “be” or have/has/had, we use the
form of “be” and have/has/had in passive too. However, the form of the above
mentioned auxiliary must agree with the subject of the passive clause.
Active: Are the students writing the notes?
Passive: Are the notes being written by the students?
Active: Is he inviting me?
Passive: Am I being invited by him?
Active: Have you turned in your homework?
Passive: Has your homework been turned in by you?
Active: Had she decorated her room?
Passive: Had her room been decorated by her?
B. If an active sentence begins with modal auxiliary verb, we use the
same modal in passive.
Active: Will you teach the students tomorrow?
Passive: Will the students be taught by you?
Active: Should he clean the room?
Passive: Should the room be cleaned by him?
C. If the active sentence begins with (Do, Does, Did), we omit them and
use the be form (is, am, are, was, were) instead.
Active: Do you speak Pashto?
Passive: Is Pashto spoken by you?
Active: Does she cook dinner?
Passive: Is dinner cooked by her?
Active: Did he answer the phone?
Passive: Was the phone answered by him?
 WH- questions (that begin by one of the wh-question words) in
passive voice
If the active sentence begins with one of the wh-question words (what, why,
when, where …etc) except “who”, there is no change in passive. Only auxiliary do,
does and did are omitted and forms of “be” are used instead.
Active: What did you buy?
Passive: What was bought buy you?
Active: Why did the teacher beat the student?
Passive: Why was the student beaten by the teacher?
Active: When does someone clean the living room?
Passive: When is the living room cleaned?
Active: What did you give him?
Passive: What was him given by you?
When the active sentence begins with “who” and is used as a subject,
we change it with “by whom” in the passive.
Active: Who should clean the dining room?
Passive: By whom should the dining room be cleaned?
Active: Who broke the chair?
Passive: By whom was the chair broken?
Active: Who teaches you?
Passive: By whom are you taught?
But when we use “who” to ask about the object of the sentence, we
don’t changed “who” to “by whom”.
Active: Who did you invite to the party?
Passive: Who were/was invited by you to the party?
Active: Who do you teach?
Passive: Who are taught by you?

Wh-questions having Modal Auxiliary

Wh-question words + Modals + S + Be + V3 + C.
Active: Where will they arrange the party?
Passive: Where will the party be arranged by them?
Active: When may she buy a house?
Passive: When may a house by bought by her?
Active: What can you teach me?
Passive: What can I be taught by you?

Wh-questions having “Have to”

Wh-question words + To do + S + Have to + Be + Verb3 + C.
Active: Where do you have to drive them?
Passive: Where do they have to be driven by you?
Active: How does Ali have to write an essay?
Passive: How does an essay have to be written by Ali?
Active: Why did you have to complete the forms?
Passive: Why did the forms have to be completed by you?

Wh-questions having “Going to”

Wh-questions word + To be + S + Going to + Be + Verb3 + C.
Active: How is he going to write the letter?
Passive: How is the letter going to be written by him?
Active: Why is he going to leave the job?
Passive: Why is the job going to be left by him?
Active: Where are they going to study English?
Passive: Where is English going to be studied by them?

Change Negative Sentences in Passive Voice

When we want to change a negative active sentence to passive, we take the
following steps.
A. If there is a modal in active sentence, use the same modal with not before be in
passive.
Active: They won’t help me.
Passive: I won’t be helped by them.
Active: He can’t do it.
Passive: It can’t be done.
B. If a negative sentence has form of be, use the form of be agreed with the
subject of the passive clause.
Active: He isn’t reading his books.
Passive: His books aren’t being read by him.
Active: He wasn’t interrupting us last night.
Passive: We weren’t being interrupted by him.
C. If the negative sentence has form of do, we omit the do form and use a form of
be instead in passive.
Active: She doesn’t wash the dishes.
Passive: The dishes aren’t washed by her.
Active: I don’t sweep the room every day.
Passive: The room isn’t swept by me every day.
Active: Rahim didn’t invite us to his wedding party.
Passive: We weren’t invited by Rahim to his wedding party.
D. If a negative active sentence has form of have/has and, we use the same form in
passive. But make sure have/has must agree with the subject of the passive
sentence.
Active: I haven’t washed the car.
Passive: The car hasn’t been washed by me.
Active: I had not invited her.
Passive: She hadn’t been invited by me.

Agentless Passive
The doer of an action is called agent. We use the preposition by before agent in
passive voice.
Ex: The passenger was robbed by Salim.
People generally don’t use the agent in passive voice. Passive without agent is
called agentless passive. Agentless passive is passive without preposition by.
Ex: A man was killed in the city yesterday.
We don’t use by phrase in the following cases.
1. When the agent is clear and we know who the agent is.
Ex: Ahmad was born in Kunduz. (We know that the agent is mother)
English is taught at English institutes. (Agent is teacher)
2. When the speaker doesn’t know who performed the action or when the agent
is indefinite pronoun.
Active: Someone stole my car yesterday.
Passive: My car was stolen yesterday.
3. When the focus is on the action and it is not important to know who
performed the action.
Ex: Rice is grown in Kunduz.
4. When the subject of an active clause is people. In general we don’t use by
phrase in passive.
Active: People speak English throughout the world.
Passive: English is spoken throughout the world.
However, we use by phrase if we talk about a special group of people.
 Active: The people of Afghanistan celebrate Nowroze.
Passive: Nowroze is celebrated by the people of Afghanistan.
5. When we want to hide the name of agent.
Ex: I was told that you are guilty.
6. When the subject of an active clause is a negative word, such as: no one,
nobody, nothing, etc, we generally don’t use by phrase in passive because the
agent is not clear. And we use not.
Active: Nobody can solve this problem.
Passive: This problem can’t be solved.
Uses of Passive
Passive is used in the following occasions:
1. In fluent English, passives occur naturally and spontaneously, without a
conscious change from active to passive. In fact, it’d be very difficult to
produce an active sentence for every passive sentence.
Ex: The origin of the universe will probably never be explained.
Rome was not built in a day.
2. Sometimes the passive is preferred to the active, specially when speakers do
not wish to commit themselves to actions, opinions, or statement of fact
which are not completely certain.
Ex: The matter will be dealt with as soon as possible.
Thousands of films are released every year, but very few of them are
watched.
3. When the agent is not known, vague, indefinite pronoun, we use passive.
Passive is common in the news and newspaper because those who commit
crime are not known or unidentified.
Ex: A man was killed in downtown.
Kabul Bank was robbed yesterday.
4. When the agent is obvious and we know who it is.
Ex: She is being treated in hospital. (Agent is obvious. It is doctors)
He was born in 1999. (Obvious agent, mother)
5. When it is unimportant to know who the agent is.
Ex: Those boxes should be handled with care.
Do you want to lift? No thanks, I am being collected.
6. When we want to focus attention on the person or thing affected by the
action.
Ex: She was invited to the party by her boss.
Hundreds of people are employed by that construction company.
7. When we want to hide the name of the person who is responsible for an
unpleasant decision or result.
Ex: The government’s policy was condemned.
8. When the agent is people.
Ex: People speak English all over the world.
English is spoken all over the world.
9. A passive verb emphasizes a victim or the result of disaster. Usually in
accidents and disasters the result is more important than the cause.
Ex: Bomb killed ten people.
Ten people were killed.
10. When we want to be more polite, we use passive voice.
Ex: You must pay the fee. (It is direct and impolite)
The fee must be paid. (It is indirect and polite)
11. Passive is common in scientific, technical and academic writing.
Ex: Many books have been written about Afghanistan.
Water can be frozen under low temperature.
12. In spoken English we often use a subject, such as: people, somebody, they,
we, one, and you when we don’t know who the agent is. But in formal English
particularly in writing, we often prefer to use passive.
Ex: One has to sign this document.
This document has to be signed.
13. The passive voice is obligatory in notices. In this case we leave out the form
of be.
Ex: Shoes Repaired Loan Arranged English Spoken
14. We use passive with by+agent to give a particular emphasis to the person or
thing who performed the action.
 Ex: The window was broken by the boy who lives next door.
The house was destroyed by a bomb.
15. When the object is more important than the subject, passive is preferred.
Active: Murtaza will meet the president.
Passive: The president will be met by Murtaza.