Active & Passive Voice
🔒 Log in to trackReverse conversions: passive to active
🔒 Log in to trackThe reverse run appears in every shift. Move the by-agent (if any) into the subject slot, rebuild the tense from the passive skeleton, and give the old subject object position:
| Passive | Active |
|---|---|
| The letter was written by Sita | Sita wrote the letter |
| The road is being repaired | They are repairing the road |
| The work had been finished | She had finished the work |
| The results will be declared | The board will declare the results |
| The kite was being flown by the boy | The boy was flying the kite |
Recover the tense from the FIRST auxiliary, not the participle: was written → past simple (wrote); is being written → present continuous (is writing); has been written → present perfect (has written); had been written → past perfect (had written); will be written → future (will write).
Missing agent: when no by-phrase exists, supply they/people/someone — 'The thief was arrested' → 'They arrested the thief'. Papers accept the standard vague subject; the options differ only in verb form.
Pronouns reverse too: 'He was praised by them' → 'They praised him.' Watch the object case at the end — 'praised he' is the planted error.
'Let' passives convert back to imperatives: 'Let the door be shut' → 'Shut the door.'
Detailed notes
The reverse run
Passive → active appears in every second paper. The method mirrors the forward one: promote the agent, rebuild the tense from the passive skeleton, demote the old subject.
| Passive | Active |
|---|---|
| The letter was written by Sita | Sita wrote the letter |
| The road is being repaired | They are repairing the road |
| The work had been finished | She had finished the work |
| The results will be declared | The board will declare the results |
| The kite was being flown by the boy | The boy was flying the kite |
Read the FIRST auxiliary, not the participle
The participle (written, repaired) never tells you the tense — every row ends in V3. The first auxiliary carries the tense:
- was/were + V3 → simple past (was written → wrote)
- is/are being + V3 → present continuous (is being written → is writing)
- was/were being + V3 → past continuous (was being written → was writing)
- has/have been + V3 → present perfect (has been written → has written)
- had been + V3 → past perfect (had been written → had written)
- will be + V3 → simple future (will be written → will write)
- will have been + V3 → future perfect (will have been written → will have written)
- modal + be + V3 → modal + V1 (must be obeyed → must obey)
The agent hunt
- A by-phrase gives the new subject: by Sita → Sita. Keep the noun exactly; change only its position.
- No by-phrase → supply the standard vague subject they (or people): The thief was arrested last night → They arrested the thief last night. Papers accept they; the options differ only in verb form.
- Do not promote a noun that was not the agent: The window was broken by the cricketer → The cricketer broke the window, never The window broke the cricketer.
The object-case exit
The old subject leaves through the object slot in object case: She was praised by the teacher → The teacher praised her (not she). He was helped by his friends → His friends helped him. Any option ending praised she / helped he is dead on arrival.
Continuous skeletons must come back continuous
was being + V3 is past CONTINUOUS — the active must be was/were + V-ing: The path was being cleared by volunteers → The volunteers were clearing the path. The commonest decoy returns a simple past (cleared) and loses the ongoing sense; a second decoy changes tense to present perfect. Refuse both.
Let-passives reverse to orders
Let the door be shut → Shut the door. You are requested to post this letter → Please post this letter. Reverse the frame word as well: requested signals please, advised signals should-giving, warned signals danger.
Quick revision
- Agent becomes subject; no agent → they.
- Tense from the FIRST auxiliary: was → past, is being → present continuous, has been → present perfect, had been → past perfect, will be → future, modal be → modal + V1.
- Old subject exits in object case: praised her, helped him.
- being skeleton → V-ing active; never return a simple past for it.
- requested → please, Let ... be → bare order.
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: Tense recovery from the first auxiliaryvery common2 practice Q
A be + V3 stem with a by-agent; the four active options differ in tense (has delivered / had delivered / is delivering / will deliver).
- Ignore the participle; read the first auxiliary.
- Map it: had been → had + V3; has been → has + V3; was being → was/were + V-ing; will be → will + V1.
- Move the by-agent to the subject slot and demote the old subject.
Why it works: every passive row ends in V3, so only the auxiliary distinguishes the eight rows; reading it first fixes the tense in two seconds.
Example: Select the active form: The walls had been whitewashed by the masons.
had been + V3 → past perfect: The masons had whitewashed the walls. 'Have whitewashed' shifts to present perfect; 'were whitewashing' changes the aspect.
Type 2: Missing agent: supply theycommon2 practice Q
The passive has no by-phrase; the correct option begins with They (or People) and decoys use the old subject as doer or shift the tense.
- Confirm no by-phrase exists.
- Put the standard vague doer they before the rebuilt verb.
- Demote the passive's subject to object position, keeping the tense row.
Why it works: English passives hide vague agents; converting back, they is the conventional stand-in, and the exam keys it every time.
Example: Select the active form: The results will be declared on Monday.
No agent → They will declare the results on Monday. will be + V3 → will + V1. 'The results will declare...' keeps the old subject as doer — reversed roles.
Type 3: Object-case exit pronouncommon2 practice Q
The passive's subject is a pronoun (he, she, they, we); options end with the pronoun in both cases (praised her / praised she).
- Move the by-agent to the front; rebuild the tense.
- The old subject-pronoun leaves in OBJECT case: her, him, them, us.
- Scan the tail of every option for the pronoun first — it eliminates fastest.
Why it works: case reversal is the mirror of the forward pronoun swap, and praised she is ungrammatical at a glance.
Example: Select the active form: She was praised by the teacher.
Agent first: The teacher praised her — was praised → praised (simple past), she → her (object case). 'Praised she' breaks the case; 'praises her' shifts the tense.
Type 4: Continuous skeleton returns to V-ingcommon2 practice Q
The stem is is/are/was/were being + V3; one option returns a plain past, another a perfect — only the V-ing option keeps the continuous.
- Spot being → the active MUST carry V-ing.
- Pick the auxiliary by tense: is being → is/are + V-ing; was being → was/were + V-ing.
- Agree the new auxiliary with the agent's number (workers → were).
Why it works: being is the continuous marker in both voices; dropping it in the active silently changes the sentence's meaning, which the key never allows.
Example: Select the active form: The path was being cleared by the volunteers.
was being + V3 → were clearing: The volunteers were clearing the path. 'Were cleared' loses the ongoing sense; 'have cleared' changes the tense.
Shortcut tricks
⚡ First-auxiliary tense
Read only the first auxiliary to fix the tense: was→past, is→present, has/had→perfect, will→future, is being→present continuous, was being→past continuous.
⚡ Agent hunt
Find the by-phrase; that noun/pronoun becomes the subject. No by-phrase → they/people/someone.
⚡ Object-case exit check
The final pronoun must be in object case: 'They praised him', not 'he'. Many options fail exactly here.
Where students lose marks
Taking 'was being chased' back to 'chased' (losing the continuous: were chasing).
Leaving the old subject in subject position ('The principal was praised him').
Ending with a subject-case pronoun ('praised he').
Changing tense on the way back (was written → has written).
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 6 min · wrong answers go to your mistake notebook automatically.