Active to Passive Voice – Quick Guide

1. What is Active and Passive Voice?

• Active voice: The subject does the action.
  Example: She writes a letter.
• Passive voice: The subject receives the action.
  Example: A letter is written by her.

2. How to Change Active Voice to Passive

1. Move the object of the active sentence to the subject position.
2. Change the verb to: be + past participle (V₃).
3. Move the subject to the end (after “by”), or omit if unimportant.
4. Keep the verb tense consistent.

3. Examples by Tense

Tense	Active	Passive
Simple Present	She cooks food.	Food is cooked by her.
Present Continuous	They are building a house.	A house is being built by them.
Simple Past	He wrote a book.	A book was written by him.
Present Perfect	I have finished the work.	The work has been finished by me.
Simple Future	They will close the shop.	The shop will be closed by them.
Modal	You must follow the rules.	The rules must be followed by you.

4. Structure Comparison

Voice	Structure	Example
Active	Subject + Verb + Object	The cat ate the mouse.
Passive	Object + Be + V3 + (by + Subject)	The mouse was eaten by the cat.

5. When to Use Passive Voice?

• Doer unknown or unimportant: English is spoken all over the world.
• Focus on action/result: The project was completed on time.

6. Quick Tips

• Not all verbs are used in passive (no passive for intransitive verbs like ‘sleep’).
• Use ‘by’ to introduce the agent (original subject), if needed.
• Match the verb tense with the active sentence.

7. Practice Converting – Try These!