Active & Passive Voice
🔒 Log in to trackModals, imperatives, infinitives and questions
🔒 Log in to trackModals: will, shall, can, could, may, might, must, should, ought to → modal + be + V3. 'You must obey the rules' → 'The rules must be obeyed.' 'They can solve it' → 'It can be solved (by them).'
Imperatives convert with Let:
- Order: 'Shut the door' → 'Let the door be shut.'
- Advice: 'Help the poor' → 'Let the poor be helped.'
- Negative order: 'Do not touch the wire' → 'Let the wire not be touched' / 'The wire should not be touched.'
- Request with 'please': 'Please post this letter' → 'You are requested to post this letter.'
Infinitives: to write → to be written ('I want someone to write this' → 'I want this to be written'). Gerunds: writing → being written ('He likes people praising him' → 'He likes being praised').
Questions:
- Who asks → By whom + auxiliary + subject: 'Who wrote this?' → 'By whom was this written?' (The wh-word moves to front with by whom; the auxiliary then precedes the new subject — word order is the planted error.)
- Whom/what as object → normal passive with the wh-word as subject: 'Whom did you call?' → 'Who was called by you?' 'What did he buy?' → 'What was bought by him?'
- Yes/no questions keep inversion: 'Did she sing a song?' → 'Was a song sung by her?'
Factitive and double-object verbs (give, send, offer, teach, tell, show) have TWO passives: 'The teacher gave the students homework' → 'The students were given homework…' OR 'Homework was given to the students…'. Both are correct; papers use one as key and corrupt the other (dropping 'to' is the classic corruption).
Detailed notes
Modals: one row, no exceptions
Will, shall, can, could, may, might, must, should, ought to → modal + be + V3. You must obey the rules → The rules must be obeyed. They can solve it → It can be solved. No being, no been after a modal: must being obeyed and must been obeyed are impossible. Ought to keeps its to: The bill ought to be paid.
Imperatives: the Let anchor
An order has no subject and starts with a base verb. Convert with Let + object + be + V3:
- Order: Shut the door → Let the door be shut.
- Negative order: Do not pluck the flowers → Let the flowers not be plucked (or a modal version: The flowers should not be plucked).
- The verb after be is always V3: Let the gate be opened, never be open (adjective) or be opening.
Requests, advice, warnings
The polite words change the skeleton, not the tense:
- Please / kindly → You are requested to + V1: Please post this letter → You are requested to post this letter.
- Advice (should/ought in sense) → You are advised to + V1: Give up smoking → You are advised to give up smoking.
- Warning (never, do not — danger) → You are warned not to + V1. Learn the three openers as a chant: please → requested, advice → advised, danger → warned.
Questions: three shapes
- Who as doer → By whom + auxiliary + subject + V3: Who broke the window? → By whom was the window broken? Word order is the planted error: By whom the window was broken? is statement order, not question order.
- Whom/what as receiver → the wh-word itself becomes the subject: Whom did the manager appoint? → Who was appointed by the manager? (whom becomes who in subject position).
- Yes/no question → auxiliary first, new subject next: Did she sing a song? → Was a song sung by her?
Infinitives and gerunds
- to write → to be written: I want someone to compile the report → I want the report to be compiled.
- writing (gerund) → being written: He likes people praising him → He likes being praised.
- After likes, hates, remembers, wants the being/to be forms are the keyed answers; decoys offer been praised (impossible after likes) or an active participle.
Factitive and double-object verbs
Give, send, offer, grant, show, teach, award yield two passives (person-promoted and thing-promoted with to). The guide showed the tourists the paintings → The tourists were shown the paintings by the guide — clean; The paintings were shown the tourists — broken, needs to the tourists.
Let me / Let us
- Let us go (suggestion) belongs to narration, not voice — do not force a Let-passive.
- Let me sit here (permission) → I should be allowed to sit there style answers; papers rarely test it in voice, more often in improvement.
Quick revision
- Modal row: modal + be + V3 — no being, no been, no to (except ought to).
- Order → Let + object + be + V3; negative → Let ... not be ... or should not be.
- please → You are requested to; advice → You are advised to; danger → You are warned not to.
- Who-questions → By whom + aux + subject + V3; whom-questions → Who was V3 by ...?
- to write → to be written; people praising → being praised.
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: Modal + be + V3very common2 practice Q
The stem carries will/can/must/should/ought to; options scatter being, been, bare V1 or V3 after the modal.
- Spot the modal; nothing between modal and be.
- Fixed row: modal + be + V3 — no being, no been.
- Keep the modal itself unchanged (must stays must; would for will is a decoy).
Why it works: the modal row has zero variants, so any option that inserts being/been or drops be is instantly wrong.
Example: Select the passive form: You should check the receipts.
Modal row: should be checked — The receipts should be checked. 'Should checked' loses be; 'should being checked' and 'should been checked' break the slot.
Type 2: Imperative → Let + object + be + V3very common2 practice Q
The stem is a bare order starting with a base verb (Shut, Post, Switch off) and no subject; the right option starts with Let.
- Recognise the imperative (no subject, base verb).
- Skeleton: Let + object + be + V3.
- Reject options without Let (statements) and options with V1/V-ing after be.
Why it works: Let is the standard passive carrier of a command; the exam always plants a statement-form decoy and a missing-be decoy.
Example: Select the passive form: Switch off the mobile.
Order → Let the mobile be switched off. 'Let the mobile switched off' drops be; 'The mobile is switched off' turns the order into a statement.
Type 3: Negative imperative and warningscommon2 practice Q
The stem says Do not ... / Never ...; options must carry not in the right slot with the right skeleton (requested/advised/warned not to, or Let ... not be).
- Classify the tone: polite request (please...not) → requested not to; advice → advised not to; warning → warned not to.
- Bare negative order → Let + object + not + be + V3, or a modal version (should not be).
- Check the negative word sits before to: not to smoke, never to not smoke in keyed answers.
Why it works: the negative travels with the reporting frame; options that drop the frame or misplace not fail at once.
Example: Select the passive form: Please do not smoke in the hall.
Polite negative request → You are requested not to smoke in the hall. The skeleton requested + not to + V1 keeps both the politeness and the prohibition.
Type 4: Request formula: You are requested tocommon2 practice Q
The stem contains please or kindly with a base verb; the keyed option begins You are requested to and decoys begin Let or use the noun request.
- See please/kindly → the request frame: You are requested to + V1.
- Keep the rest of the sentence word for word after to.
- Let-forms and is + V3 statements are decoys for a please-sentence.
Why it works: please cannot survive inside a passive clause; English swaps it for the frame you are requested to, and the exam tests exactly that swap.
Example: Select the passive form: Kindly grant me a day's leave.
You are requested to grant me a day's leave. Nothing else changes: grant stays a base verb after to, and the listener's me is kept.
Type 5: Question conversions (By whom / Who was)common2 practice Q
The stem ends with a question mark; who-questions convert with By whom at the front, whom/what-questions promote the wh-word to subject.
- Decide the wh-word's job in the question: doer (who) or receiver (whom/what).
- Doer → By whom + auxiliary + new subject + V3 (+?).
- Receiver → the wh-word itself is promoted: Who was appointed by the manager?
- Check question word order — auxiliary BEFORE subject.
Why it works: question conversions fail on word order far more often than on verb form; checking the order first settles the item.
Example: Select the passive form: Who broke the window?
By whom was the window broken? — By whom + was (past of the do-broken frame) + the window + broken. 'By whom the window was broken?' is statement order; 'Who was broken the window?' scrambles the roles.
Type 6: Infinitive and gerund passives (to be / being + V3)occasional2 practice Q
The stem has to + verb after want/like/hate, or a gerund with people/someone as its doer (people praising him); options offer to be, being, been forms.
- Infinitive: to + V1 → to + be + V3 (to compile → to be compiled).
- Gerund: V-ing → being + V3 (praising him → being praised).
- Reject been after like/want (been only follows have/had) and active forms that keep the old doer.
Why it works: the passive marker (be/being) slides into the same slot the non-finite verb occupied; the tense frame of the sentence never moves.
Example: Select the passive form: He likes people praising him.
Gerund passive: He likes being praised. 'Likes been praised' is impossible (been needs have/had); 'likes to praise' reverses the meaning.
Shortcut tricks
⚡ Let-anchor
An imperative stem (no subject, base verb) signals the Let + object + be + V3 answer. Any option without 'Let' or a modal cannot be right.
⚡ By whom inversion
Who→questions convert to 'By whom + was/were/is + new subject + V3'. Check the word order first — options scramble it.
⚡ Request formula
Please → 'You are requested to …'; order → 'Let … be …'; advice → 'You are advised to …' or '… should be …'.
Where students lose marks
Converting 'Please help me' to 'Let me be helped' instead of 'You are requested to help me'.
Writing 'By whom this was written?' — statement order in a question; it needs 'By whom was this written?'
Dropping 'to' in the second passive of a double-object verb ('Homework was given the students').
Using 'ought to be' wrongly as 'ought be' or 'ought to been'.
Practice sets — 16 questions
Sets of 10, mixed across the question types above. Each answer comes with a step-by-step explanation.
Topic test · 10 questions
Suggested time 5 min · wrong answers go to your mistake notebook automatically.