Active and Passive Voice: Let's Learn!

Hey Super Students! Today, we're going on an adventure with sentences! We're going to learn about two cool ways to say things: Active Voice and Passive Voice.

Imagine a sentence is telling a story. In Active Voice, the story is all about who is doing the action. Like, "The cat chased the mouse." The cat is the star doing the chasing!

In Passive Voice, the story focuses more on what the action is done to. Like, "The mouse was chased by the cat." Here, the mouse and what happened to it is the main thing.

It's like changing the camera angle in a movie! The story is the same, but we look at it differently.

How to change from Active to Passive?

Find the doer (subject) and the receiver (object) of the action.
Make the receiver the new star (subject) of the sentence.
Change the verb: Use a form of "to be" (like is, am, are, was, were, been) and the special past form of the main verb (called the past participle – like written, eaten, played).
If you want to say who did the action, add "by [the doer]" at the end.

Don't worry, we'll see lots of examples to make it super clear!

Understanding Active and Passive Voice

Read the following sentences:

He is writing a letter. (Active)

A letter is being written by him. (Passive)

You will have noticed that the verb changes its form when the sentence is changed from the active voice to the passive voice. The passive form of the verb is constructed by putting appropriate auxiliary verbs before the past participle form of the active verb.

The active and passive forms of the verb write are given below:

When the active verb is in the Simple Present Tense

Active verb form: write/writes

Passive verb form: is/am/are written

He writes a letter. (Active)

A letter is written by him. (Passive)

When the active verb is in the Present Continuous Tense

Active verb form: is/am/are writing

Passive verb form: is/am/are being written

He is writing a letter. (Active)

A letter is being written by him. (Passive)

When the active verb is in the Present Perfect Tense

Active verb form: has/have written

Passive verb form: has/have been written

He has written a letter. (Active)

A letter has been written by him. (Passive)

When the active verb is in the Simple Past Tense

Active verb form: wrote

Passive verb form: was/were written

He wrote a letter. (Active)

A letter was written by him. (Passive)

When the active verb is in the Past Continuous Tense

Active verb form: was/were writing

Passive verb form: was/were being written

He was writing a letter. (Active)

A letter was being written by him. (Passive)

When the active verb is in the Past Perfect Tense

Active verb form: had written

Passive verb form: had been written

He had written a letter. (Active)

A letter had been written by him. (Passive)

When the active verb is in the Simple Future Tense

Active verb form: will/shall write

Passive verb form: will/shall be written

He will write a letter. (Active)

A letter will be written by him. (Passive)

When the active verb is in the Future Perfect Tense

Active verb form: will/shall have written

Passive verb form: will/shall have been written

He will have written a letter. (Active)

A letter will have been written by him. (Passive)

More Examples to Practice!

Active: The dog eats the bone.

Passive: The bone is eaten by the dog.
Active: Children love cartoons.

Passive: Cartoons are loved by children.
Active: The teacher is explaining the lesson.

Passive: The lesson is being explained by the teacher.
Active: My mom baked a cake.

Passive: A cake was baked by my mom.
Active: The farmer was ploughing the field.

Passive: The field was being ploughed by the farmer.
Active: She has cleaned her room.

Passive: Her room has been cleaned by her.
Active: They had finished the homework.

Passive: The homework had been finished by them.
Active: The postman will deliver the letters.

Passive: The letters will be delivered by the postman.
Active: We will have completed the project by next week.

Passive: The project will have been completed by us by next week.
Active: Birds build nests.

Passive: Nests are built by birds.
Active: Someone stole my bicycle.

Passive: My bicycle was stolen.
Active: The mechanic is repairing the car.

Passive: The car is being repaired by the mechanic.
Active: The cat drank the milk.

Passive: The milk was drunk by the cat.
Active: The company has launched a new product.

Passive: A new product has been launched by the company.
Active: The gardener waters the plants every day.

Passive: The plants are watered by the gardener every day.

Tricky Words & Easy Meanings

Active Voice: When the sentence shows the subject (the doer) doing the action. (Example: "The boy kicks the ball.")
Passive Voice: When the sentence shows the action being done to the subject (the receiver). (Example: "The ball is kicked by the boy.")
Verb: An action word or a word that tells us what someone or something is doing or being (like: run, eat, is, am, write).
Subject: The person, animal, or thing that does the action in an active sentence, or receives the action in a passive sentence.
Object: The person, animal, or thing that the action is done to in an active sentence.
Tense: Shows when an action happens (like: now - present tense, before - past tense, later - future tense).
Auxiliary Verb: A "helping" verb used with the main verb to show tense or voice (like: is, am, are, was, were, has, have, had, will, be, being, been).
Past Participle: A special form of a verb, often ending in -ed, -en, -d, or -t. It's used to make perfect tenses and the passive voice (like: written, eaten, played, built, taught).
Constructed: Made or put together.
Appropriate: Correct or just right for a situation.

Active and Passive Verb Forms