Active and Passive Voice — The Conversion Rule for Every Tense

Voice questions are the cheapest marks in any English paper — TRE-4 Part I, CTET Language I and II, SSC CGL and CHSL, RRB NTPC — because the answer follows a fixed formula, not judgement. Two to four marks per paper, and you can get every one of them right.

Voice tells you what the sentence is built around. In the active voice the doer comes first: 'Ravi writes a letter.' In the passive, the thing that is acted upon comes first: 'A letter is written by Ravi.' The meaning does not change; only the focus shifts.

Three things move when you convert:

1. 1.The object becomes the new subject.
2. 2.The verb becomes the correct form of BE + past participle (V3).
3. 3.The old subject moves to the end after 'by'.

Only verbs that take an object (transitive verbs) can be made passive. 'She sleeps' has no object, so it has no passive form. Learn the BE table once and the whole chapter becomes mechanical.

1. Choose the correct passive form: 'The gardener waters the plants every morning.'

2. Choose the correct passive form: 'Somebody has stolen my bicycle.'

3. Choose the correct passive form of the imperative: 'Open the window.'

4. Choose the correct passive form: 'Who wrote this poem?'

5. Choose the correct passive form: 'The teacher will announce the results tomorrow.'

6. Which of these sentences CANNOT be changed into the passive voice?

7. Choose the correct passive form: 'They are helping her.'

8. Change into the active voice: 'The letter has been posted by Meena.'