Active and Passive Voice: Definition, Types, Examples, Rules & Exercise

Active and Passive Voice: Understanding the concept of active and passive voice is very much important for students of all grades at the school level as well as the competitive level. This forms the basis of the foundation of English grammar. So in this article, we discuss the concept of active and passive voice. So before directly jumping to know what is the active and passive voice, it is necessary to what is Voice.

What is Voice of Verb?

The voice of a verb is the verb that expresses whether the subject in the sentence has performed or received the action. For example, in the sentence

Ram helps Hari.
Hari is helped by Ram.

In the first sentence, the form of the verb shows that the subject does something, that is, the subject has performed or done something. So the verb helps is in said to be the active voice.

In the second sentence, the form of the verb shows that something is done to the subject or the subject has received something. So the verb helped is said to be the passive voice.

Types of Voice of Verb

There are two types of voice-

Active Voice
Passive Voice

Types of Voice of Verb
Active Voice	Passive Voice
Definition: A verb is in active voice when its form shows that the person or thing denoted by the subject does something or in other words, is the doer of the action. Hence in an active voice, the subject is the doer.	Definition: A verb is said to be a passive voice when its form shows that something is done to the person or thing denoted by the subject. Hence in passive voice, the subject is a passive state, that is, suffers or receives some action.
Examples: Sita loves Savitri. The mason is building the pillar. The peon opened the gate. Some girls were helping the wounded man.	Examples: Savitri is loved by Sita. The wall is being built by the mason. The gate was opened by the peon. The wounded man was being helped by some boys.

Rules for Conversion of Active and Passive Voice

The rule for conversion from active voice to passive voice is as follows-

Rule1: First and foremost, identify the subject, verb, and object(S+ V+O) in the sentence to convert to passive voice.

Rule2: Then interchange the object and subject with each other, that is, the object of the active sentence becomes the subject of the passive sentence.

Rule3: Change the base verb in the active sentence into the past participle(third form of the verb) in a passive sentence.

Rule4: The word by will be used before the subject in passive voice.

Rule 5: The pronoun in the sentence will also be changed.

Active Voice Pronoun	Passive Voice Pronoun
I	Me
We	Us
He	Him
She	Her
They	Them
You	You
It	It

Rule 6: While conversion use suitable auxiliary verbs.

Active and Passive Voice in Tenses form

The passive voice is formed with the suitable tense of the verb followed by the past participle. Study the table given below-

Tense	Active Voice	Passive Voice	Examples
Simple Present	Subject + Verb + Object	Object + is/am/are + V3 + by Subject	Active: I eat mangoes Passive: Mangoes are eaten by me.
Present Continuous Tense	Subject + is/am/are + verb + ing + Object	Object + is/am/are + being + V3 + by Subject	Active: Ramesh is calling Neena. Passive: Neena is being called by Ramesh
Present Perfect Tense	Subject + have/has + V3 + Object	Object + has/have + been + V3 + by Subject	Active: I have made some cakes. Passive: Some cakes have been made by me.
Simple Past tense	Subject + Verb(past tense) + Object	Object + was/were + V3 + by Subject	Active: Preeti stole my clothes. Passive: My clothes were stolen by Preeti
Past Continuous Tense	Subject + was/were + Verb + ing+ Object	Object + was/were + being + V3 + by Subject	Active: The postman was delivering the letters. Passive: The letters were being delivered by the postman.
Past Perfect Tense	Subject + had + V3 + Object	Object + had been + V3 + by subject	Active: The girls had eaten all the muffins. Passive: All the muffins had been eaten by girls.
Simple Future Tense	Subject + shall /will +V1 + Object	Object + shall/will + be +V3 + by subject	Active: We shall finish the whole work by 6 pm. Passive: The whole work will be finished by us by 6 pm
Future Perfect Tense	Subject + shall/will + have + V3 + Object	Object + shall/will + have been + V3 + by subject	Active: They will have won the football match. Passive: The football match will have been won by them.

An exception to the rule: No passive Voice formation for the following tenses can be formed, that is, Present Perfect Continuous Tense, Past Perfect Continuous Tense, Future Perfect Continuous Tense, and Future Continuous Tense]

Exercise of Active and Passive Voice

Go through the sentence and Identify

Vineeta sings beautiful songs.
Riya helps everyone.
Pooja was being beaten by her teacher.
Lucky is helped by Steve
The builder is building the tower.
The woodcutter cuts the wood.
The man dropped the ashes into the river.
The parrot was shot by the naughty boy.
By whom was German taught to you?
Vipin lost the money.

Answers

1. Active voice 2. Active voice 3. Passive voice 4. Passive Voice 5. Active voice 6. Active voice 7. Active voice 8. Passive voice 9. Passive voice 10. Active voice

Related Links-
Verb	Helping Verbs
Tense chart

Active and Passive Voice-FAQs

Ans. The voice of a verb is the verb that expresses whether the subject in the sentence has performed or received the action.

Ans. There are two types of voice- Active Voice Passive Voice

Ans.A verb is in active voice when its form shows that the person or thing denoted by the subject does something or in other words, is the doer of the action. Hence in an active voice, the subject is the doer.

Ans. A verb is said to be a passive voice when its form shows that something is done to the person or thing denoted by the subject. Hence in passive voice, the subject is a passive state, that is, suffers or receives some action.

Ans. Passive voice is used when the doer of the action is not known and the focus of the sentence is on the action and not the subject.