Voice and Speech
Active and passive voice
Tell active from passive, and change a sentence from one voice to the other.
Every sentence with an object can be told two ways. The chef cooked the meal puts the doer first. The meal was cooked by the chef puts the thing done to first. Same event, different voice — and which one you pick changes what the reader notices.
Active
The subject does the action. Rita wrote the letter. This is the plainer, shorter and usually better choice.
Passive
The subject has the action done to it. The letter was written by Rita. The verb is always a form of be plus a past participle: was written, are made, will be sent.
The tense never changes
Only the voice changes. Cooked is past, so was cooked is past. Cooks is present, so is cooked is present. Getting the tense of be right is the whole trick.
Why would anyone choose the passive? Because sometimes the doer is unknown, unimportant, or deliberately left out. "The window was broken in the night" is exactly what you say when you have no idea who broke it.
Worked example
Change to the passive: "The courier delivers the letters."
The object is "the letters", so it moves to the front.
The object of the active sentence always becomes the subject of the passive one.
Try it together
Let us turn one active sentence into the passive, a piece at a time.
The sentence is: The farmer planted the mango tree.
1.What is the object — the thing the action was done to? Write it.
Have a go
Change to the passive: "The children decorated the hall."
Ready to practise?
Eight questions on what you have just read. Nothing is timed, and you can play as many times as you like.