Transitive verbs (verbs that take object for the completion of their meaning) have both active and passive forms. Look at the given table.
| Active | Passive |
|---|---|
| The hunter killed the lion. | The lion was killed by the hunter. |
| Someone has cleaned the windows | The windows have been cleaned. |
| Mr Singh wrote a book. | A book was written by Mr. Singh. |
| We bake the bread here. | The bread is baked here. |
| They will close the gates this evening. | The gates will be closed this evening. |
| They will announce the news soon. | The news will be announced soon. |
2. From the above examples, you might have learnt that the passive forms are made up of the verb be with a past participle. Look at the other examples here in the table:
| Be | Past Participle | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| English | is | Spoken | all over the world |
| The windows | have been | Cleaned | row2 col 4 |
| Lunch | was being | Served | row3 col 4 |
| The work | will be | Finished | soon |
| They | might have been | Invited | to the party |
The meaning will not be changed when we change a sentence into its passive. Only the structure gets changed.
Active: Devkota wrote Munamadan.
Passive: Munamadan was written by Devkota.
When we change an active sentence into its passive form, the object of the active sentence goes to the position of subject and the subject of the active sentence goes to the end and we use ‘by+subject’ of the passive sentence.
Active: He wrote a story.
Passive: A story was written by him.
If we want to show the person or thing doing the action we use by. We use ‘by+agent’ when it’s important to mention. If the subjects of the active sentences are uncertain like: someone, people, they etc ., we don’t mention them.
Acitve: A dangerous dog attacked her.
Passive: She was attacked by a dangerous dog.
Active: They are building a new ring road.
Passive: A new ring road is being built.
6. The tense remains the same but we use be+past participle. Look at the structures in the
passive forms of different sentences in the following table.
| Active | Passive | Remarks |
|---|---|---|
| He draws pictures. | Pictures are drawn by him. | is/am/are + past participle in simple present tense |
| He teaches me. | I am taught by him. | is/am/are + past participle in simple present tense |
| She cooks rice. | Rice is cooked by her. | is/am/are + past participle in simple present tense |
| They built a house. | A house was built. | was/were+past participle in the simple past tense |
| She wrote many stories. | Many stories were written by her. | was/were+past participle in the simple past tense |
| We are baking the bread. | The bread is being baked. | being+past participle in continuous tense. |
| They were doing the homework. | The homework was being done. | being+past participle in continuous tense. |
| She has done the work. | The work has been done by her. | ‘been+past participle’ in perfect tense. |
| He had painted the door. | The door had been painted. | ‘been+past participle’ in perfect tense. |
| She will have done the task. | The task will have been done by her. | ‘been+past participle’ in perfect tense. |
| They will close the gates. | The gates will be closed. | ‘be+past participle’ after ‘will/be going to/can/must/have to/should’ etc. |
| She can do the task. | The task can be done by her. | ‘be+past participle’ after ‘will/be going to/can/must/have to/should’ etc. |
| He has to paint the picture. | The picture has to be painted. | ‘be+past participle’ after ‘will/be going to/can/must/have to/should’ etc. |
The forms of the be verb (singular: is/was, plural: are/were) to be used in passive depends on the new subject.
Active: He writes a story.
Passive: A story is written by him. (Here ‘is’ is used because ‘a story’ is a singular subject)
The same rule applies to other verbs as well.
Active: She has put all the things in the box.
Passive: All the things have been put in the box. (Here in the active sentence the subject ‘she’ is singular. So ‘has’ is used but in the passive sentence the new subject ‘all the things’ is plural and we have used ‘have’ and since it’s in perfect tense we have used ‘been’ in passive.)
The rules are the same for the phrasal verbs as well but the whole phrasal verb, not only the verb, has to be moved with the verb.
| active | passive |
|---|---|
| They called off the meeting. | The meeting was called off. |
| His grandmother looked after him. | He was looked after by his grandmother. |
| They will send him away to school. | He will be sent away to school. |
If there are two objects, we can make passive by both the objects but look at the example below:
Active: He gave me a book.
Passive: I was given a book by him.
A book was given to me by him.
A question in active remains question in passive but look at the position of question words and the position of verbs in the following examples.
Active: Who invented the telephone?
Passive: Who was the telephone invented?
Active: Did you write the letters?
Passive: Were the letters written by you?
Look at the imperative sentence in the passive structure.
Active: Close the door.
Passive: Let the door be closed.
If an active sentence is negative, the passive will also be negative but be careful with the subjects like: nothing, no one, nobody etc.
Active: Nobody did the task.
Passive: The task was not done.
Active: She didn’t write the memo.
Passive: The memo wasn’t written by her.
Look at the following examples to learn the special structures of passive sentences.
Active: People say that Henry is in love with Clarie.
Passive: Henry is said to be in love with Clarie.
: It is said that Henry is in love with Clarie.