Active and Passive Voice
ICSE Class 7 · English · Chapter 5
What this chapter covers
- Voice: meaning and function
- Changing a sentence from active to passive
- Passive voice across tenses
- Passive with modals
- Passive of commands and questions
- Passive in reports and experiments
- Changing a sentence from passive to active
Key definitions
Voice is the form of a verb that shows whether the subject of a sentence does the action or receives the action.
The active voice is the form of the verb in which the subject does the action.
The passive voice is the form of the verb in which the subject receives the action instead of doing it.
The agent is the doer of the action in a passive sentence, usually placed after the word by.
A transitive verb is a verb that takes an object, that is, a person or thing that receives the action. Kick, write, build, eat and carry are transitive: you kick a ball, you write a letter.
An intransitive verb is a verb that does not take an object. Sleep, arrive, laugh, go and fall are intransitive: you cannot sleep something.
The past participle is the form of a verb used after have and in all passive sentences, such as written, taken, broken, cleaned and painted.
A modal is a helping verb such as can, could, may, might, must, shall, should, will, would or ought to that adds an idea of ability, permission, possibility, duty or advice to the main verb.
An imperative sentence is a sentence that gives a command, makes a request or offers advice, and its subject you is usually not stated. Shut the gate. Please lend me your pen. Drink plenty of water.
Key points
- Voice shows whether the subject does the action (active) or receives it (passive).
- The passive voice is used when the doer is unknown, unimportant or obvious, when the receiver is the real topic, or when the writing must sound formal.
- Only transitive verbs, which take an object, can be put into the passive voice.
- To form the passive, make the object the subject, use the right form of be in the same tense, add the past participle, and put the doer after by or drop it.
- Continuous tenses take being; perfect tenses take been; the four perfect-continuous and future-continuous tenses are normally kept active.
- With modals the pattern is modal + be + past participle: can be done, must be finished.
- Commands become Let ... be + past participle, You are requested / ordered / advised to ..., or a modal passive such as should be + past participle.
- In questions, the helping verb or question word stays at the front; Who ...? becomes By whom ...?
- News reports, headlines, science records and notices use the passive voice to keep attention on the event, the materials or the instruction.
- To change passive to active, make the agent the subject, keep the tense, and supply a doer such as someone or people if none is given.