In grammar, the voice of a sentence describes the relationship between the subject and the verb. There are two main types of voice: active voice and passive voice.
Active voice is when the subject of the sentence performs the action expressed by the verb. For example, “The cat chased the mouse” is in the active voice because the subject “cat” performs the action “chased”.
Passive voice is when the subject of the sentence is the recipient of the action expressed by the verb. For example, “The mouse was chased by the cat” is in the passive voice because the subject “mouse” is the recipient of the action “chased”. In passive voice, the agent (actor) is often omitted or included with a preposition “by”.
Active voice is generally considered to be more direct and clear, and passive voice is often used to de-emphasize the actor or to show the importance of the action itself. Passive voice is also used when the actor is unknown or unimportant, or when the focus is on the action and not on who performed it.
In summary, active voice is when the subject performs the action, and passive voice is when the subject receives the action.
Contents
Active To Passive Voice
Structure: …be verb + v3…
Examples of conversion from active voice to passive voice
Active Voice: Bimochan makes a chair.
Passive Voice: A table is made by Bimochan.
Active Voice: Govinda is writing a story.
Passive Voice: A story is being written by Govinda.
Active Voice: Krishna married Radha.
Passive Voice: Radha was married to Krishna.
Active Voice: I will help her.
Passive Voice: She will be helped by me.
Passive To Active Voice
There is no need of any structure while converting sentences from passive to active. The same structures used before can be reversed.
Examples of conversion from passive voice to active voice
Passive Voice: He is being helped by her.
Active Voice: She is helping him.
Passive Voice: Nepali is spoken in Nepal.
Active Voice: People speak Nepali in Nepal.
Passive Voice: Let him be helped by her.
Active Voice: Let her help him.
Passive Voice: Let them be helped.
Active Voice: Help them.
Passive Voice: He is going to sell his bike.
Active Voice: His house is going to be sold.
Active and Passive Structures
| Tense | Active Voice | Passive Voice |
|---|---|---|
| Present Simple | … V1/V5 + object | … is/am/are + V3 |
| Past Simple | … V2 + object | … was/were + V3 |
| Future Simple | … shall/will + infinitive + object | … shall/will + be + V3 |
| Present Continious | … is/am/are + V4 + object | … is/am/are + being +V3 |
| Past Continuous | … was/were + V4 + object | … was/were + being + V3 |
| Present Perfect | … have/has +V3 + object | … have/has + been + V3 |
| Past Perfect | … had + V3 + object | … had + been + V3 |
| Future Perfect | … shall/will + have + V3 | … shall/will + have + been + V3 |
| Going to Future | … is/am/are + going to + infinitive + object | … is/am/are + going to + be + V3 |
Fundamental Rules While Converting From Active To Passive Voice
- The object in active voice becomes the subject in passive voice.
- The subject in active voice is kept after main verb as agent/doer in passive voice.
- If auxiliary verbs are present in active voice similar auxiliary verbs should be placed in passive voice. Example. If active voice contains “have” then passive voice should contain “have” or “has”.
Example: Active Voice: She has done it.
Passive Voice: It has been done by her.
