2/6/2021 Voice

Active and Passive

Noorhossain Noori
0730779091

Nothing ventured Nothing Gained

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Oria Afghan Educational Center
Voice
Definition of voice
Voice is a form of a verb which is used to show whether the subject does an action or it suffers from an
action or in other words it shows whether subject does an action or something is done by the object.

Kinds of Voice
1. Active voice
When the subject does an action or when the object receive the action of a verb is called the active
voice.

2. Passive voice
When the subject suffers from an action or when the subject receives the action of a verb is called the
passive voice.

Why do we use passive?

1. In fluent English, passives occur naturally, without a conscious change from active to passive. In
fact, it’d be very difficult to produce an active sentence for every passive sentence.
2. When the agent is not known or vague. Passive very common in news because those who
commit crime are generally unknown.
3. When the agent is vivid or clear.
4. When the agent is not important.
5. When we want to hide the name of the person who is responsible for an unpleasant decision or
result.
6. When people in general are the agents. If the subject of an active sentence is (People), in
general, we use passive.
7. When the speaker doesn’t know who performed action or when the agent is indefinite pronoun
such as (someone, something, anything, somebody and etc…)

General points about Passive

1. Only transitive verbs can be changed into passive
Ex: (ring, give, choose, pass, sing, sell, pay, bring, lend, read, speak, write and etc…)
2. Object of the active sentence becomes the subject of the passive sentence and the subject of
the active sentence becomes the object of passive sentence.
Active: She called her father. Passive: Her father was called by her.
3. We always use the past participle in passive whether the tense is simple, past or perfect.
Active: She is calling Ahmad. Passive: Ahmad was being called by her.
4. The general formula for passive is: (BE + PARTICIPLE)
(Be= is, am, are, was, were, be, been, being)
5. We use (Been) for Perfect tenses in passive voice.
Active: Rohullah has washed the dishes.
Passive: The dishes have been washed by Rohullah.
6. We use (Being) for Progressive/Continuous tenses in passive.

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Noor Hussain “Noori”
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Oria Afghan Educational Center
Active: Javed was fixing the car. Passive: The car was being washed by Javed.
7. It is possible but not common to change perfect progressive tenses (Past, Present, Future) and
Future Progressive to passive, but other progressive such as; Past Progressive, Present
Progressive are common to use in the passive and sound more natural.
Active: Sara has been reading a book. Passive: The book has been being read by Sara.
(this sentence is correct but not very common in the passive.)
8. Preposition (By) is used before the doer of an action or the agent (Agent is the person or thing
that does something.)
Active: Zahra wrote the composition. Passive: The composition was written by Zahra.

How we can write a Passive

1. Bring the Object of an active sentence at the beginning of the passive sentence.
Active: The teacher took a test. Passive: A test was taken by the teacher.
2. If there is any auxiliary in the active sentence, place it right after the new subject, and remember
to use (Be) after the auxiliary.
Active: He should erase the board. Passive: The board should be erased by him.
3. Place the Main verb after the (Auxiliary + Be), and remember that the Main verb should be in
Past Participle form.
Active: He should sweep the room. Passive: The room should be swept by him.
4. Place the subject of the active sentence after the Past Participle in the passive sentence and use
the preposition (By) before the subject of the active sentence.
Active: She teaches English. Passive: English is taught by her.

Every tense has a different structure in passive sentence.

Changes in Tenses structures

1. Simple Tenses
a. Simple Present Tense: Is/Am/Are + Past Participle
Active: I open my phone. Passive: My phone is opened by me.
b. Simple Past Tense: Was/Were + Past Participle
Active: I opened my phone. Passive: My phone was opened by me.
c. Simple Future Tense: Will + Be + Past Participle
Active: I will open my phone. Passive: My phone will be opened by me.
2. Progressive Tenses
a. Present Progressive: Is/Am/Are + Being + Past Participle
Active: We are studying English. Passive: English is being studied by us.
b. Past Progressive: Was/Were/ + Being + Past Participle
Active: We were studying English. Passive: English was being studied by us.
c. Future Progressive: Will + Be + Being + Past Participle.
Active: We will be studying English. Passive: English will be being studied by us.

3. Perfect Tenses
a. Present Perfect: Have/Has + Been + Past Participle
Active: She has studied English. Passive: English has been studied by her.
b. Past Perfect: Had + Been + Past Participle
Active: She had studied English. Passive: English had been studied by her.

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Oria Afghan Educational Center
c. Future Perfect: Will + Have + Been + Past Participle
Active: She will have studied English. Passive: English will have been studied by her.

4. Perfect Progressive Tenses

a. Present Perfect Progressive: Have/Has + Been + Being + Past Participle
Active: You have been keeping a secret. Passive: A secret has been being kept by you.
b. Past Perfect Progressive: Had + Been + Being + Past Participle
Active: You had been keeping a secret. Passive: A secret had been being kept by you.
c. Future Perfect Progressive: Will + Have + Been + Being + Past Participle
Active: You will have been keeping a secret.
Passive: A secret will have been being kept by you.

REMINDER: always keep this in your mind that 4 tenses are very rarely used in the passive including all
Perfect Progressive and Future Progressive tense, it is possible to change them to Passive but they are
not common and they don’t sound natural.

Let’s look at this chart.

NO TENSE ACTIVE PASSIVE

1 SIMPLE PRESENT Keep Is/Am/Are kept

2 PRESENT PROGRESSIVE Is/Am/Are keeping Is/Am/Are being kept

3 PRESENT PERFECT Have/Has kept Have/Has been kept

4 PRESENT PERFECT PROGRESSIVE Have/Has been keeping Have/Has been being kept

5 SIMPLE PAST Kept Was/Were kept

6 PAST PROGRESSIVE Was/Were keeping Was/Were being kept

7 PAST PERFECT Had kept Had been kept

8 PAST PERFECT PROGRESSIVE Had been keeping Had been being kept
9 SIMPLE FUTURE Will keep Will be kept

10 FUTURE PROGRESSIVE Will be keeping Wil be being kept

11 FUTURE PERFECT Will have kept Will have been kept

12 FUTURE PERFECT PROGRESSIVE Will have been keeping Will have been being kept

Changing a Question form sentence to passive

Generally, two types of question are used in the passive

1. Yes/No questions
2. W.H Questions

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Oria Afghan Educational Center
1. How to change a Yes/No question in to passive?
If the question is Yes/No question, then it usually starts with auxiliary verb and this auxiliary can be
different.

a. When the auxiliary is (Be), we also use (Be) in the passive, however, they form of (Be) must
agree with the subject of the passive voice.
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?
b. If a question sentence in active begins with (do, does, did), omit them and use a form of (Be)
Active: Do you speak English?
Passive: Is English spoken by you?
Active: Did he visit Dr. Zikria?
Passive: Was Dr. Zikria visited by him?

c. If the active form starts with Have, use the form of Have in the passive as well.
Active: Have you submitted your Homework?
Passive: Has your homework been submitted by you?
Active: Had she decorated the room?
Passive: Had the room been decorated by her?
d. If active question sentence starts with a Modal, use the same Modal in the passive.
Active: Should he erase the board?
Passive: Should the board be erased by him?
Active: Can you speak English?
Passive: Can English be spoken by you?

2. How to change a W.H question in to passive?

W.H questions are usually started by W.H words and Phrases

Keep these points in your mind when changing a W.H question into passive.

1. We use the same W.H question word in passive except who.

2. Auxiliary changes, as we have studied.
a. Be for Be
b. Have for Have
c. Omitting Do, Does and Did, and using of Is, Am and Are
d. The same Modal
Active: When did Ahmad clean this room?
Passive: When was this room cleaned by Ahmad?
Active: Why did the teacher asked me?
Passive: Why was I asked by the teacher?
3. When an active question sentence starts with (Who), there are two cases
a. If Who asks about the subject, we use (By + Whom)
Active: Who should erase the board?
Passive: By whom should the board be erased?

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Oria Afghan Educational Center
Active: Who broke the glass?
Passive: By whom was the glass broken?
b. If Who asks about the object, we use Who itself
Active: Who are we teaching?
Passive: Who is being taught by us?
Active: Who did Ahmad call?
Passive: Who was called by Ahmad?

Changing Negative Sentences in to Passive

When we want to change a negative active sentence to passive, we take the following steps.
1. If there is a Modal in active sentence, use the same Modal with not in the passive.
Active: He won’t help him. Passive: He won’t be helped by him.
Active: They can’t do it. Passive: it can’t be done by them.
2. If a negative sentence has a form of be, use a form of be, however, the form of be must agree
with the subject of passive.
Active: Bob isn’t reading his books. Passive: His books aren’t being read by Bob.
Active: He wasn’t calling us last night. Passive: We weren’t being called by him.
Changing Modals and Similar Expressions in Passive Voice
Modal auxiliaries are verbs which have special meanings. We always use simple form of verbs after
Modals whether it is active or passive.

The general formula for all auxiliaries (Modal, Semi-Auxiliary, Marginal) except Primary Auxiliary and
similar expressions in passive voice is:

(Modal, Semi-Auxiliary, Marginal and similar expressions + Be + Past Participle)

Modals are (Can, Could, Shall, Should, Will, Would, May, Might, Must)
Semi-Auxiliaries are (Have to, Has to, Be going to, had better)
Marginal are (Used to, Dare, Need), but (Dare) is not so common.

Active: He will draw the map tomorrow. Passive: The map will be drawn by him.
Active: She is about to leave her post. Passive: Her post is about to be left by him.

Agentless Passive
What is an Agent?
The doer of an action is called the Agent
Ex: Ahmad opens the door The door is opened by Ahmad
In this sentence the agent in both sentences is Ahmad, because he is the one doing the action.

What is agentless passive?

A passive voice sentence that doesn’t have agent is called agent less passive, people generally
do not use the agent in the passive.

When do we use agentless passive?

1. When the agent is clear and we know who the agent is.
Ex: He was born in Afghanistan (By mother, isn’t important and we know agent is mother.)
Ex: English is taught in English centers (By teacher, isn’t important and we know the agent.)
2. When the speaker doesn’t know who performed action or when the agent is an Indefinite pronoun.
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Active: Someone will paint this room.
Passive: This room will be painted.
Active: Anybody will sign that paper.
Passive: That paper will be signed.
3. When the focus is on the action and it isn’t important to know who performed the action.
Ex: Rice is grown throughout the world (It is not important to say by People)
4. Generally, if the subject in active sentence is (People), we don’t use by phrase in the passive.
Active: People around the world speak English
Passive: English is spoken all around the world (By People isn’t important)
Active: People grow wheat.
Passive: wheat is grown (By People is not important)
However, we use By Phrase if we talk about a special group of people.
Active: The People of Afghanistan celebrate Nowrose.
Passive: Nowrose is celebrated by the people of Afghanistan.

Imperative sentences in passive

When we sue imperative sentence in passive voice, we use the verb Let.

POSITIVE IMPERATIVE Structure: Let + Object + Be + Past Participle.

Active: Polish my shoes. Passive: Let my shoes be polished.

Active: Help the poor. Passive: Let the poor be helped.

NEGATIVE IMPERATIVE Structure: Let + Object + Not + Past Participle.

Active: Do not close the window. Passive: Let the window not be closed.
Active: Do not play Cricket. Passive: let Cricket not be played.

Reflexive Pronouns in Passive Voice

Reflexive pronouns are generally omitted in the passive voice.

Active: I burned myself in the fire. Passive: I was burned in the fire.
Active: I hurt myself in a car crash last year. Passive: I was hurt in a car crash last year.

Using other prepositions instead of By in passive voice

Some other preposition can also be used in passive voice instead of (By) such as:

1. With:
a. With is usually used in place of by when the agent is something or a thing.
Active: Smoke filled the class. Passive: The class was filled with smoke.
Active: fire burned me. Passive: I was burned with fire.
b. With is with parts of body.
Passive: This pictures were painted with fingers.
Passive: a circle was drawn in the dust with toes.
c. We use (with), with instruments.
Passive: The tree was chopped with an ax.
Passive: the meat was cut with a knife.
2. The preposition (To) is used after known in passive.

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Oria Afghan Educational Center
Active: I know Zakir. Passive: Zakir is known to me.

Be + Supposed to + Base Form

Be supposed to is used to talk about an action or an activity which expected to happen or talk about an
arrangement or expectation about scheduled events or is used to talk about what people have to do
according to the rules or the laws.

Ex: We are supposed to deliver these parcels on time.

Ex: Students of Oria Afghan Educational Center are supposed to pay their fees on time.
EX: Muslims are supposed to pray five time a day.

But in past it is used to show incomplete expectations or something we expected to happen but it didn’t
we use (be supposed to) in the past.

Ex: The match was supposed to begin at 8 O’clock, but it started at 8:30 because it was raining.
Ex: The plane was supposed to arrive at 7.

Written and prepared by:

Noor Hussain “Noori”