Active and Passive Voice
Active and Passive Voice
Active and Passive Voice
MODULE
ACTIVE AND PASSIVE
3 VOICE
Since this module is self-paced, individualized, and designed with you in mind,
you are required to finish at your own convenience before the end of the week. Check-
up activities have checkers which allow you to check on your understanding of the
lesson in each section through an adult. Furthermore, this module also comes with a
progress monitor which allows you to keep track of your achievement and progress
through the Milestone Tracker.
Objectives
By the end of this module, you will be able to:
1. identify the voice of the sentence;
2. convert active voice to passive voice and vice versa; and,
3. discern when to use passive voice
Learning Outcomes
1. You will be able to harness your writing skill in academic writing with the
use of appropriate voice of the verb.
2. You will use your knowledge of active and passive voice in writing a
thorough presentation of information about the history or the origin of your
place.
To Do List
The following are the accomplishments that you need to come up with at the end
of the week.
Answer the pretest.
Study modules 3.1 through 3.4.
Answer ten (10) Check-up activities
Watch video tutorials of each lesson. The link is provided in every section.
Take online quizzes 1, 2, and 3 at
https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/english-grammar-reference/active-
and-passive-voice
Take the Summative Test and write an informative essay
Lesson Overview
Sentences can be active or passive. Therefore, tenses also have active forms and
passive forms. You must learn to recognize the difference to successfully perfect your
English grammar.
In active sentences, the thing doing the action is the subject of the sentence and
the thing receiving the action is the object. Most sentences are active.
In passive sentences, the thing receiving the action is the subject of the sentences
and the thing doing the action is optionally included near the end of the sentences. You
can use the passive form if:
a. the thing receiving the action is more important or should be emphasized;
b. you do not know who is doing the action; or,
c. you do not want to mention who is doing the action.
Source: https://www.englishpage.com/verbpage/activepassive.html
Take the short pretest. Write your answer on the space provided.
3. What is the function of the word picture in the sentence, SUBJECT or OBJECT?
8. Tell whether the active sentence is correctly written into passive sentence. Write
CORRECT OR INCORRECT.
Check your answer with your teacher or any adult. The result of this test tells
you the extent of effort that you must exert in understanding active and passive voice.
What is your score? Whatever that is, you did a great job!
It is now time to start your Week 3 learning journey. Before anything else, below
are the sections that you need to go through till the end of the week.
Module 3.3 Converting Active Voice to Passive Voice and Vice Versa
Subject
The basic parts of a sentence are the subject and the verb (the predicate). The subject
is usually a noun – a word (or phrase) that names a person, place, or thing. It usually
appears before the predicate to show (a) what sentence is about, or (b) who or what
performs the action.
Tip: The subject usually appears at the beginning of the sentence. It shows who
or what does the action.
The subject may be just a single word: a noun or a pronoun. In the examples,
noun is the subject of the sentence. The subject answers the question next to the
sentence.
Personal pronouns such as he, she, we, you and they may be used as a subject
aside from nouns. Imperative sentences have an implied subject “you”.
Tip: Compound subjects can be formed by linking two or more nouns, pronouns,
or noun phrases with the word and.
Examples:
1. Grace cried.
2. Max wrote a letter.
3. Bill Reynolds is an amazing baseball player.
4. The storm clouds are getting darker. Quick Tip: In
5. The stern judge ruled that the defendant was not guilty. identifying a
subject, ask
6. Juan and Julian worked so hard on their project. the question
7. The farmers are plowing the field. who or what.
Verb
The verb (or predicate) usually follows the subject and identifies, shows, or
describes an action or a state of being. Words like run, jump, think, and look are all
verbs because they describe actions.
Verbs
walk watch write listen
talk see type dance
play cry sip catch
say sigh try hear
drink solve hang reach
Action verb is a word that shows what someone or something is doing. The one
or thing that does something is called the subject. Recognizing a verb or an action is easy
when you know what the subject of the sentence is.
Tip: In identifying the verb or action in the sentence, use the 2W Question
strategy.
Let’s do the following example. And let’s use the 2W Question strategy.
Objects
Another important sentence element that you need to learn before learning active
and passive voice is object. Objects are words that receive the action and usually follow
the verb. It is the who or what the subject does something to. They are nouns, pronouns,
or noun phrases.
In the example,
the action is expressed by the verb “hit.”
“The boy” is doing the action.
The word that receives the action “hit” is “the ball.”
In this sentence,
‘They’ is the subject: the one performing the action and the one the
sentence is about
‘played’ is the verb: it is the action being performed by the subject
‘drums’ is the object: it is ’what’ is being played and it is ‘what’ the
subject is doing something to
Direct Objects
The objects such as ‘ball’ and ‘drums’ in the foregoing sentences are examples of
direct objects. Direct objects show who or what the action of the verb affects.
Tip: To find a direct object, (1) find the subject, (2) find the verb, and (3) put the
subject and verb in the blank: __________ who or what?
Hence, ‘coffee’ is the direct object to which the action is acted upon.
Therefore, ‘cereal’ is the direct object to which the action is acted upon. In the
following examples, the subject, verb, and object of the sentences are identified.
Subject-Verb-Object
Sentence Subject Verb Direct Object
Sarah ate cake Sarah ate cake
David built a ramp on the sidewalk. David built a ramp
She plays tennis. She plays tennis.
MODULE
RECOGNIZING ACTIVE
3.2 AND PASSIVE VOICE
Voices of Verb
Voice of verb refers to the relationship between the subject of the sentence and
the verb. In other terms, the voice indicates the role of the subject as doer or receiver of
the action. There are two verb voices in English: active voice and passive voice.
Active Voice
Active voice can be understood as the form of writing which depicts when the
subject is carrying out the action indicated by the verb and takes the object directly.
Tip: The sentence is in active voice when the subject performs the action.
In the above examples, both subjects ‘chef’ and ‘thief’ perform the actions
‘prepares’ and ‘stole’. The objects ‘meal’ and ‘money’ receives the action.
In an active voice, as the subject does the action directed by the verb, it is
expressed as an agent of the main verb.
Passive Voice
Passive voice refers to the style of writing, which we use when instead of
emphasizing the subject we put stress on the action. Passive voice is also suitable when
the actor is not known or is not important, or you want to lay emphasis on the person or
thing on which the action took place. It can also be used when the discussion is made on
a universal fact or truth.
In the above examples, the subjects ‘meal’ and ‘money’ do not perform as the
doer of the action unlike the function of the subjects of the sentences a and b. Instead,
they are acted upon. The verbs are changed by using auxiliary verb “be” (is and was)
followed by the past participle of the verbs: ‘prepared’ for ‘prepares’ and ‘stolen’ for
‘stole’; thus, ‘is prepared’ and ‘was stolen’. The subject in sentence a become the object of
the preposition (OPrep) in passive sentence c; meanwhile, the doer of the action in
sentence b may not be mentioned as shown in sentence d.
To make it clear, passive voice of the verb is its past participle form with the a
“be” verb form such as is, was, are, were, be, been, or being. Take a look at the examples.
The active verb ‘told’ is changed to ‘was told’ where ‘told’ is the past participle of
the verb ‘tell’ and ‘was’ as the be-verb.
The active verb ‘reserves’ is changed to ‘is reserved’ where ‘reserved’ is the past
participle of the verb ‘reserve’ and ‘is’ as the be-verb.
The active verb ‘have caught’ is changed to ‘has been caught’ were ‘caught is the
past participle of the verb ‘catch’ and the be-verb ‘been’ is added. In this example, the
number of be-verb is changed according to the number of subject.
Change of Subject, Change of Number
When the active voice is changed to passive voice, the number of the passive
verb depends on the number of the new subject. The subject of a passive sentence is the
object of the active voice.
In the above example, the number of the object ‘novel’ in the active sentence is
singular. That means, in changing the sentence to its passive form, the be-verb should be
also singular with the use of be-verb ‘is’. Note: The be-verb ‘is’ is used instead of ‘was’
because the active verb ‘writes’ is in simple present tense.
The active sentence is in past tense. The object of the verb ‘novels’ is plural. In
changing this active sentence to passive sentence, use the number of the object in
determining the number of be-verb; thus, the plural form of the be-verb should be used.
Note: the be-verb ‘were’ is used instead of ‘are’ because the active verb ‘wrote’ is in past
tense.
tense.
Correct. The verb agrees with the new subject.
Passive: The car was repaired by Frank.
There is change of subject-object role.
Comparison Chart
Tip: Only sentence with direct object can have a passive voice. Intransitive verbs
don’t have passive form.
Some sentences don’t have passive form. The following sentences cannot have a
passive form because they don’t have direct objects. This means that the verbs, called
intransitive verbs, don’t have object to which the action is acted upon.
Tip: In general, we mainly use the active voice, for writing purposes, to make
the sentence more simple, direct and easy to understand. On the other hand,
passive voice is mainly used in legal writing and for stylistic writing.
Example:
Active: John washes the dishes.
Passive: The dishes washes John.
The dishes are washed by John.
AV PV
Activ Passiv
e e
MODULE
CHANGING ACTIVE VOICE
TO PASSIVE VOICE & VICE
3.3 VERSA
In converting active voice to passive voice and voice versa, there are three things
that you need to keep in mind.
1. Sentence Pattern
2. Subject-Verb Agreement
3. Verb Tense
1. Sentence Pattern
Example:
Simon dribbles the ball.
passive verb
past
subject (object of the active object (subject of
+ be + participle of + by +
sentence) the active sentence)
the verb
Example:
The ball is dribbled by Simon.
subject passive verb object of the prep
2. Verb Tense
When changing active voice to passive voice, always consider the tense of the
active verb. That means, always maintain the tense of the verb in both active and passive
sentences.
You can view this video for more example: Passive Voice in English: Active and
Passive Voice and Useful Examples or click the link https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=nRGLDD0BBdc
3. Subject-Verb Agreement
1. Move the active sentence’s direct object into the sentence’s subject slot.
2. Place the active sentence’s subject into a phrase beginning with the preposition
by.
3. Add a form of the be-verb to the main verb and change the main verb to its past
participle form.
To change a passive voice sentence into an active voice sentence, simply reverse
the steps shown above.
1. Move the passive sentence’s subject into the active sentence’s direct object
slot.
2. Remove the auxiliary be verb from the main verb and change main verb’s
form if needed.
3. Place the passive sentence’s object of the preposition by into the subject slot.
Tip: Some passive voice sentence may not mention a doer of the action. To
change sentence like this, create a doer-of-the-action subject.
performance. performance.
8. Champagne is drunk on New Year’s Eve.
A People are drinking champagne on B People drink champagne on New
New Year’s Eve. Year’s Eve.
9. The first commercially successful portable vacuum cleaner was invented by a janitor
who was allergic to dust.
A A janitor who was allergic to dust B A janitor who was allergic to dust
invented the first commercially had invented the first commercially
successful portable vacuum cleaner. successful portable vacuum cleaner.
1 After Leonardo da Vinci's death, the Mona Lisa was purchased by King Francis I of
0 France.
A King Francis I of France was B King Francis I of France purchased
purchasing the Mona Lisa after the Mona Lisa after Leonardo da
Leonardo da Vinci's death. Vinci's death.
MODULE
ACTIVE VOICE AND PASSIVE
3.4 VOICE: SUMMATIVE TEST
A. Answer this summative test. Write your answer on the space provided.
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
B. Write an informative essay about your place. Present folk tales about the origin
of your place and some interesting things about it.