A sentence can be stated as either active voice or as passive voice. The active voice or passive voice can be understood by checking the form of the verb and its relation with the subject.
What is active voice?
A verb is in active voice when its form shows that the subject (person/thing) does something.
Ex: Prasun will finish the homework tonight.
Explanation: Here the subject, Prasun, is the person who performs the action of finishing (verb- finish) the homework.
What is passive voice?
A verb is in the passive voice when its form shows that something is done to the person or thing denoted by the subject. i.e it becomes the recipient of the action.
Ex: The homework will be finished by Prasun tonight.
Examples of active and passive voice
| Active Voice | Passive Voice |
| The banker counted the money. | The money was counted by the banker. |
| Elephants adore bananas. | Bananas are adored by Elephants |
| The dog chased the cat. | The cat was chased by the dog. |
| Rahul read the novel in one day. | The novel was read by Rahul in one day. |
| I will clean the house every Sunday. | The house will be cleaned by me every Sunday. |
Active Passive Voice conversion chart/rule as per tense
Case of Simple Present – In this case, the active object becomes the passive subject. (with use of is/are/am + past participle)
| Active (Simple Present) | Passive (Simple Present) |
| Ex: The web series entertains me. | Ex: I am entertained by the web series. |
| Explanation: The object in this case “me” becomes the subject in passive voice. | |
| The web series surprises them. | They are surprised by the web series. |
Case of Simple Past– In this case, the active object becomes the passive subject. (with the use of was/were + past participle.)
| Active (Simple Past) | Passive (Simple Past) |
| Ex: The web series bored me. | Ex: I was bored by the web series. |
| See the use of was | |
| Ex: The web series entertained Santosh. | Ex: Santosh was entertained by the web series. |
Case of Present Continuous: Here the conversion to passive form is done using is/are/am + being + past participle.
| Active (Present Continuous) | Passive (Present Continuous) |
| Ex: I am watching web series. | Ex: The web series is being watched by me. |
| Santosh is helping Manisha | Manisha is being helped by Santosh. |
| Rohit is playing cricket. | Cricket is being played by Rohit. |
Case of Past Continuous: Here the conversion to passive form is done using was/were + being + past participle.
| Active (Past Continuous) | Passive (Past Continuous) |
| Ex: I was watching the web series | Ex: The web series was being watched by me. |
| Santosh was helping Manisha. | Manisha was being helped by Santosh |
| Rohit was playing cricket. | Cricket was being played by Santosh. |
Case of Present Perfect: passive form becomes- has/have been + past participle.
| Active (Present Perfect) | Passive (Present Perfect) |
| Someone has picked my pocket. | My pocket has been picked by someone. |
| I have watched this movie. | The movie has been watched by me. |
Case of Past Perfect: passive form becomes – had been + past participle.
| Active (Past Perfect) | Passive (Past Perfect) |
| Ex: The man had cut the tree. | Ex: The tree had been cut by the man. |
| I had cleaned the window. | The window had been cleaned by him. |
Case of Future Perfect: passive form becomes – will have been + past participle.
| Active (Future Perfect) | Passive (Future Perfect) |
| Ex: I will have finished the work next month. | Ex: The work will have been finished by next month. |
Case of Future Tense: Passive form becomes- (When WILL is used) will + be + past participle OR (When Going to is used) is/are going to be + past participle.
| Active (Future Tense) | Passive (Future Tense) |
| I will mail the documents. | The documents will be mailed by me. |
| I am going to make the dish. | The dish is going to be made by me. |