Active & Passive Voice
🔒 Log in to trackVoice basics: the three moves
🔒 Log in to trackVoice is a swap of stage positions: what received the action steps into the spotlight. Three moves convert any transitive sentence:
- Object becomes subject. 'The chef prepared the meal' → 'The meal …'
- Verb becomes be + V3, with be carrying the original tense. Prepared (past) → was prepared; writes (present) → is written. The main verb is ALWAYS the past participle (V3) — never V1, never V2.
- Subject drops into a by-phrase — and may vanish entirely when it is vague (someone, people, they) or unimportant: 'Someone has stolen my purse' → 'My purse has been stolen.'
Pronoun cases swap too: he↔him, she↔her, they↔them, I↔me, we↔us. 'He helps me' → 'I am helped by him.' In the options, a subject-slot him or an agent-slot he is an instant elimination.
Only transitive verbs passivise. Verbs without an object — arrive, sleep, laugh, die, go — have no passive at all. An option passivising 'The baby slept' does not exist in English, so the question never asks for one; but knowing this kills fake constructions in improvement items.
The complete conversion table — memorise as one block; every voice item is a row from it. Take the active sentence "She writes a letter":
| Tense | Active verb | Passive verb |
|---|---|---|
| Simple present | writes | is / are + V3 (a letter is written) |
| Present continuous | is writing | is / are being + V3 (is being written) |
| Present perfect | has written | has / have been + V3 (has been written) |
| Simple past | wrote | was / were + V3 (was written) |
| Past continuous | was writing | was / were being + V3 (was being written) |
| Past perfect | had written | had been + V3 (had been written) |
| Simple future | will write | will be + V3 (will be written) |
| Future perfect | will have written | will have been + V3 |
| Going to | is going to write | is going to be + V3 |
Tenses with NO passive: present perfect continuous (has been writing), past perfect continuous, future continuous (will be writing), and future perfect common usage limits. If the paper shows one of these, the conversion asks for the nearest allowed form — usually its simple counterpart. The 'being/been' skeleton is therefore: be (in the tense of the main verb) + been (only after perfect or modal) + being (only after continuous or modal+be) + V3 always.
Detailed notes
What voice means
In the active voice the subject does the action: The chef prepared the meal. In the passive voice the subject receives the action: The meal was prepared by the chef. Both sentences describe the same event — only the spotlight moves. Competitive exams (SSC, Railway, Banking) ask you to move that spotlight correctly, in under 30 seconds, twice per paper.
The three moves — the whole method
- Object becomes subject. Find the thing the verb acts on. In The chef prepared the meal, the meal is acted on, so the meal becomes the new subject.
- Verb becomes be + V3. The main verb always turns into its past participle (V3: written, prepared, rung), and a helping verb be carries the original tense. Prepared is simple past, so be appears as was: was prepared. Writes is simple present, so is written. The tense never changes — only its carrier changes.
- Subject drops into a by-phrase. The doer appears after by, in the object case: by the chef, by him, by them. When the doer is vague — someone, people, they — the by-phrase is usually dropped altogether.
Worked mini-example: The postman rings the bell. Object = the bell. Verb rings is simple present → is rung. Doer → by the postman. Result: The bell is rung by the postman.
Pronouns swap their cases
Subject forms (I, he, she, we, they) become object forms (me, him, her, us, them) when they slide into the by-phrase. Object forms become subject forms when they move forward: He helps me → I am helped by him. Say the swap aloud once and the commonest option trap dies: by he and us were invited are impossible.
Only transitive verbs can be passivised
A passive needs an object to promote. Verbs that take no object — sleep, arrive, laugh, die, go, cry — have no passive at all: The baby slept peacefully has no passive version, ever. This is a real exam type: Select the sentence that cannot be changed into the passive voice — the answer is the objectless verb. One refinement: verb + preposition can act as one transitive unit, so They laughed at him → He was laughed at is legal. Test the whole phrase, not the bare verb.
The tense handover table (eight rows)
| Active | Passive |
|---|---|
| writes (simple present) | is / are + V3 |
| is writing (present continuous) | is / are being + V3 |
| has written (present perfect) | has / have been + V3 |
| wrote (simple past) | was / were + V3 |
| was writing (past continuous) | was / were being + V3 |
| had written (past perfect) | had been + V3 |
| will write (simple future) | will be + V3 |
| will have written (future perfect) | will have been + V3 |
Learn the rows as one block: the helping verb reproduces the original tense; the main verb is always V3. No row contains is been, will being, or a bare V1/V2 after be.
Three instant elimination checks
- Tense changed? was written offered for wrote — wrong.
- Wrong V-form after be? is wrote, is ringed, must obeyed — wrong.
- Pronoun case broken? by he, us were invited — wrong. In a well-set item, each wrong option breaks exactly one of these rules; the correct option breaks none.
Quick revision
- Three moves: object → subject; verb → be + V3 in the SAME tense; subject → by-phrase (dropped if vague).
- Pronoun mirror: he→him, she→her, they→them in the by-phrase; me→I when promoted to subject.
- No object → no passive: sleep, arrive, die, cry never passivise (but laugh AT him can).
- Vague agents (someone, they, people) usually vanish; the rest stay after by.
- Four fault classes to hunt in options: tense change, wrong V-form, missing being/been, pronoun case.
Types of questions asked
Every way this subtopic shows up in exams — how to recognise it, the formula or logic to use, and a solved example.
Type 1: Three-move conversion with a pronoun swapvery common3 practice Q
A short declarative stem; the options are passive versions differing in the verb skeleton or in by he/by him.
- Find the object; promote it to subject.
- Rebuild the verb as be + V3, keeping the original tense exactly.
- Push the old subject behind by, in the object case.
- Re-agree is/are/was/were with the NEW subject.
Why it works: every passive statement is built by these three moves and nothing else; the options differ only in which move was botched.
Example: Select the passive form: The peon rings the bell.
Object the bell → subject; rings (simple present) → is rung; doer → by the peon. Result: The bell is rung by the peon.
Type 2: Vague agent drops outvery common3 practice Q
The stem's subject is someone, people, they, one, or nobody-in-particular; the correct option carries no by-phrase while decoys drag 'by them/by people' along.
- Check whether the doer names a specific person or thing.
- Vague doers (someone, they, people) are dropped in the passive.
- Keep the tense row untouched; the by-phrase is the only casualty.
Why it works: English omits agents that add no information; My purse has been stolen is idiomatic while by someone adds nothing.
Example: Select the passive form: Someone has switched off the fans.
Present perfect row → have been switched off; the vague agent someone is dropped: The fans have been switched off. Keeping 'by someone' is grammatical but never the keyed answer.
Type 3: Pronoun-case eliminationcommon2 practice Q
The stem has pronouns on both sides (he...me, they...us) and the options tangle I/me, he/him, we/us in the two slots.
- Decide each pronoun's NEW job: mover-to-by-phrase takes object case; promoted pronoun takes subject case.
- Test each option's two pronoun slots independently — one correct slot does not save an option.
- Reject any option whose verb also moved.
Why it works: by he and me is helped are impossible English, so case alone can finish the item.
Example: Select the passive form: They invited us to the wedding.
We is promoted (subject case, not us); them goes to the by-phrase: We were invited to the wedding by them.
Type 4: No-passive filter (objectless or stative verb)occasional2 practice Q
The stem asks which sentence CANNOT be passivised (or which CAN); the options mix transitive and objectless verbs.
- Underline each option's verb and ask: does it act on a thing?
- Sleep, arrive, die, cry, go, laugh (alone) have no object → no passive.
- Stative verbs — have/own, resemble, lack, suit, cost — also refuse the passive in standard usage.
Why it works: the passive promotes an object; where no object exists, the promotion is impossible, and the setter builds the whole item on that fact.
Example: Which cannot be changed into the passive voice: The baby slept peacefully / The mother woke the baby / The doctor examined the reports / The nurse weighed the newborn?
Slept takes no object, so The baby slept peacefully has no passive. The other three all have objects (the baby, the reports, the newborn) and passivise cleanly.
Shortcut tricks
⚡ Tense handover
The helping verb must reproduce the ORIGINAL tense: wrote→was, writes→is, will write→will be, has written→has been. Any tense change in the options is an error planted on purpose.
⚡ V3-only law
After be/been/being, the main verb is always V3 (written, given, built). 'Is wrote', 'was wrote', 'is build' are impossible — eliminate on sight.
⚡ Pronoun mirror
Subject pronoun moves to by-phrase in object case (he→by him); object pronoun moves to subject slot in subject case (me→I).
Where students lose marks
Changing the tense while converting (writing 'is written' for 'wrote').
Keeping the active form in the by-phrase: 'by he' instead of 'by him'.
Forgetting that the object of a preposition can also passivise ('They laughed at him' → 'He was laughed at').
Trying to passivise intransitive verbs.
Practice sets — 12 questions
Sets of 10, mixed across the question types above. Each answer comes with a step-by-step explanation.
Topic test · 12 questions
Suggested time 7 min · wrong answers go to your mistake notebook automatically.