Changing Passive Voice to Active Voice
Changing Passive Voice to Active Voice.
While changing Passive Voice into Active Voice, we must keep in mind all the rules of the Active Voice in the reverse order. We come across sentences in the Passive Voice without subject or agent. In this case, supply the appropriate subject.
To decide whether the given passive voice sentence is in passive voice, any one of the following constructions should be present.
· 1. is, was ,are, were, am + past participle
· 2. be + past participle
· 3. being + past participle
· 4. been + past participle
· 5. Let ...be + past participle
Changing Passive Voice to Active Voice.
Passive voice / Impersonal passive
Differences between passive voice with by phrase and impersonal passive:
Compare these two sentence:
· Last year, the Green-India scheme was announced by the Government.
· Rare plants are found in Silent Valley.
In the first sentence, the doer/agent is explicitly mentioned because the doer is important in that sentence. But in the second sentence it is not so, because either the agent or doer of the action is too obvious or unknown.
The passive construction is quite common in scientific / technical / business writing. In these types of objective writing the emphasis is usually on the action or process or thing that is described. So the ‘by’ phrase is generally omitted in these writings. It is called Impersonal Passive.
· They say that might is right.
It is said that might is right.
· One finds mosquitoes everywhere.
Mosquitoes are found everywhere.
· He gave us a cheque.
A cheque was given to us.
While changing Passive Voice into Active Voice, we must keep in mind all the rules of the Active Voice in the reverse order. We come across sentences in the Passive Voice without subject or agent. In this case, supply the appropriate subject.
To decide whether the given passive voice sentence is in passive voice, any one of the following constructions should be present.
· 1. is, was ,are, were, am + past participle
· 2. be + past participle
· 3. being + past participle
· 4. been + past participle
· 5. Let ...be + past participle
Changing Passive Voice to Active Voice.
Passive Voice | Active Voice |
The thief was finally arrested | The police finally arrested the thief |
We were taught grammar | The teacher taught us grammar |
My purse has been stolen | Somebody has stolen my purse |
The patients were looked after | The doctor looked after the patients |
Passive voice / Impersonal passive
Differences between passive voice with by phrase and impersonal passive:
Compare these two sentence:
· Last year, the Green-India scheme was announced by the Government.
· Rare plants are found in Silent Valley.
In the first sentence, the doer/agent is explicitly mentioned because the doer is important in that sentence. But in the second sentence it is not so, because either the agent or doer of the action is too obvious or unknown.
The passive construction is quite common in scientific / technical / business writing. In these types of objective writing the emphasis is usually on the action or process or thing that is described. So the ‘by’ phrase is generally omitted in these writings. It is called Impersonal Passive.
· They say that might is right.
It is said that might is right.
· One finds mosquitoes everywhere.
Mosquitoes are found everywhere.
· He gave us a cheque.
A cheque was given to us.
No comments