Learn passive voice and how to convert an active sentence into passive. Learn tips and rules with common mistakes for using passive sentence structure.

1. Spoken English
Passive Voice
By
Ash Vyas

2. Passive Voice Usage
•When you want to highlight the action.
•When you don’t know who or what is performing an action.
•When it is not important or commonly known who or what is performing an
action.

3. Passive Structure Examples:
•My car was stolen.
•The house was built in 1654.
•A mistake was made.
•The road is being repaired.
•All the cookies have been eaten.

4. Passive Sentence Syntax:
Subject + finite form of to be + Past Participle of main verb
How To convert an active sentence into a passive sentence?
Step 1: Put object of the verb at the beginning of the sentence.
Step 2: Write appropriate ‘to be verb’ in the same tense as it is in the active sentence.
Step 3: Put main verb in past participle form.
Step 4: [optional] add ‘by + subject’ at the end of the sentence when subject is known.
Note: Convert ‘Personal Pronoun subject’ in ‘Object pronoun subject’ in step 4.

5. For reference:

6. Active to Passive Tense Tips:
Active [Verb Form] Passive Active Ex: Passive Ex:
Present Simple To be verb + P.P. I do it. It is done.
Past Simple To be verb + P.P. I did it. It was done.
Future Simple To be verb + P.P. I will do it. It will be done.
Present Continuous To be verb + being + P.P. I am doing it. It is being done.
Past Continuous To be verb + being + P.P. I was doing it. It was being done.
Future Continuous To be verb + be + being
+ P.P.
I will be doing it. It will be being done.

7. Active to Passive Tense Tips:
Active [Verb
Form]
Passive Active Ex: Passive Ex:
Present Perfect Has/Have + been + P.P. I have done it. It has been done.
Past Perfect Had + been + P.P. I had done it. It had been done.
Future Perfect Will have + been + P.P. I will have done it. It will have been done.
Present Perfect
Continuous
I have been doing it. X
Past Perfect
Continuous
I had been doing it. X
Future Perfect
Continuous
I will have been doing it. X

8. Tips to Covert Active Sentence into Passive:
You must remember rules of ‘Tenses’ + ‘Active -> Passive Conversion’.
Follow Below Steps:
1. Identify the subject + object + main verb.
2. Identify the tense of the sentence.
3. Follow 4 steps for converting an active sentence into the passive.

9. Step by step example 1: Active to Passive
The developers build an API. (Sentence in Active Voice)
Step 1: An API
Step 2: An API is
Step 3: An API is built. (Sentence in Passive Voice)
Step 4: [Optional] An API is built by the developers. (Sentence in Passive Voice)

10. Step by step example 2: Active to Passive
The cleaner cleaned the office. (Sentence in Active Voice)
Step 1: The office
Step 2: The office was
Step 3: The office was cleaned. (Sentence in Passive Voice)
Step 4: [Optional] The office was cleaned by the cleaner. (Sentence in Passive Voice)

11. Examples to formulate passive sentence when a
person is in the object position
Object pronoun will be converted into the Personal Pronoun.
Examples:
Somebody pushed him. -> He was pushed.
They have invited us. -> We have been invited.
Interviewer was interviewing me. -> I was being interviewed.

12. Examples to formulate passive sentence when both, a person
and an object are in the object position:
In this situation, either a person or an object can be your object of passive
sentence.
Examples:
•Someone handed me a bag. -> I was handed a bag. or A bag was handed to me.
•They have sent us an email. -> We have been sent an email. or An email has been
sent to us.

13. Notes:
All verbs in English don't take an 'object'. Thus, some sentences are complete
without an object so you can't convert them into Passive sentence.
Examples:
•I slept well.
•We live far away.
•You read nice.
•They speak fluently.

14. Notes:
If the active sentence begins with 'no-one' or 'nobody', the passive sentence will be
negative.
Example:
•Nobody turned on the system. [Active]
•The system was not turned on. [Passive]

15. Notes:
If there is a preposition between the verb and the object, the preposition will
remain with the verb in passive voice as well.
Example:
•We discussed about the bug report. [Active]
•The bug report was discussed about. [Passive]

16. Infinitive
Infinitive -> be + P.P.
Active Passive Active Ex: Passive Ex:
Will + Infinitive Will + be + P.P. I will do it. It will be done.
Going to + Infinitive Going to + be + P.P. I am going to do it. It is going to be
done.
Have/Has to + Infinitive Have/Has to + be +
P.P.
I have to do it. It has to be done.
Used to + Infinitive Used to + be + P.P. I used to do it. It used to be done.
Modal (can, shall, etc.) +
Infinitive
Modal + be + P.P. I can do it. It can be done.

17. Gerund
Gerund -> being + P.P.
Active Passive Active Ex: Passive Ex:
Gerund Being + P.P. I am doing it. It is being done.
Avoid + Gerund Avoid + being + P.P. I avoid seeing him. He avoids being seen.
Don’t mind +
Gerund
Don’t mind + being +
P.P.
I don’t mind teaching
her.
She doesn’t mind being
taught.

18. Common Mistakes
1. Not sticking to the same tense.
Example:
Someone has reported the issue. [Present Perfect]
The issue has reported.
The issue has been reported. [Present Perfect]

19. Common Mistakes
2. Forgetting ‘To be Verb’ while converting Active sentence into Passive.
Example:
Someone handed me a bag.
A bag handed to me.
A bag was handed to me.

20. Common Mistakes
3. Not changing the ‘to be verb’ in case of singular to plural in passive voice.
Example:
Developer is going to develop the applications.
The applications is going to be developed.
The applications are going to be developed by developers.

21. Any Questions?
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