Passive Voice

English grammar comprises two types of voices, active and passive. One can describe an action a subject performs in multiple ways using these voices.  Questions on voices are common in the English section of various competitive exams such as CLAT and IBPS. Therefore, aspirants need a thorough understanding of this concept to improve their overall scores. The forms of verbs, types of sentences, and tenses play a major role in the conversion of a verb from passive voice to active voice and vice-versa. This article makes a detailed note of when and how to use the passive voice. Let us have a look.

What is a Voice?

The voice is simply describing an action from a receiver’s or doers’ context. On this basis, the voices have two classes: active and passive.

What is Passive Voice?

We use active voice most of the time where we lay importance on the doer of the action. Passive voice is useful when we don’t know the doer or when the subject is acted upon by the action word. 

Passive voice expresses the subject that is acted upon by a verb. It is in the form of: 

S + HV + V3 + The doer

Where,

S:  the subject

HV: the helping verb

V3: the verb in 3rd form

The doer: by someone 

For example,

A song is sung by Ram.

Here,

‘a song’ is the subject

‘is’ is the helping verb

‘sung’ is the verb in V3 form, which expresses singing

‘by Ram’ is the doer.

In passive voice, the ‘helping verb’ describes the tense, i.e., past, present or future, in which the action occurs. It always uses the main verb in past-participle/V3 form. The subject is not necessary for the passive voice. For instance, it is also possible to write the above example as:

A song is sung. 

When to Use Passive Voice?

The good reasons to use the passive voice are:

• To signify the subject that is acted upon:
  • After a long period, the demands were accepted by the company.
• To make the subject tactful:
  • The demands were somehow accepted.
• The subject is unknown or irrelevant:
  • Every day, thousands of men are seen travelling in trains.
• To create an authoritative tone:
  • Students are to be in class at 9:30 a.m.

Passive Voice to Active Voice

Structure

The active voice expresses the subject performing an action described by the verb on the object. In simple terms, we can describe an active voice in the following format:

S + V + O

Where,

S: Subject

V: Verb

O: Object

For example:

Ram sings a song.

Here,

‘Ram’ is the subject

‘sings’ in the form of the verb that implies singing

‘a song’ is the object.

List of pronouns to be used in conversion:

The table below lists some pronouns used in the voices.

Let us understand the conversion from passive to active voice with the verb ‘sing’ in the following tense forms.

Let us see some more illustrations of passive to active voice conversion.

Difference between Passive and Active Voices