In general speech, we use active voice.
Ex: She writes a letter.
(Here we focus on the subject)
The passive voice is used when the focus is on the action.
Ex: A letter is written by her.
The passive voice is used in public messages.
Ex: Dogs are not allowed.
FORMATION AND APPLICATION OF PASSIVE VOICE
- The passive is formed with the appropriate tense of the verb “to be” + Past Participle.
- The object of the sentence becomes the subject of the sentence.
- The active verb changes into the passive from.
- The main verb takes its past participle form.
- The subject of the active sentence becomes the agent and is introduced with the preposition “by”.
- The sentence should have a transitive verb (Intransitive verbs cannot be converted into passive voice).
There are some types of sentences which cannot be converted into passive voice.
- Present Perfect Continuous Tense.
- Past Perfect Continuous Tense.
- Future Continuous Tense.
- Future Perfect Continuous Tense.
| Active voice | Passive voice |
Present Simple | She writes a letter. | A letter is written by her. |
Past simple | She wrote a letter. | A letter was written by her. |
Future simple | She will write a letter. | A letter will be written by her. |
Present Continuous | She is writing a letter. | A letter is being written by her. |
Past continuous | She was writing a letter. | A letter was being written by her. |
Present Perfect | She has written a letter. | A letter has been written by her. |
Past perfect | She had written a letter. | A letter had been written by her. |
Infinitive | She has to write a letter. | A letter has to be written by her. |
Modals | She should write a letter. | A letter should be written by her. |
Going to | She is going to write a letter. | A letter is going to be written by her. |
