Active and Passive Voice: Rules, Tense Table and Practice
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Active and Passive Voice: 
Rules, Tense Table and be + V3
T H E  W H O L E  T R I C K
Practice
Turn any sentence round in three moves, then try 12 exam-style 
sentences with answers.
Object first, doer last.
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T H E  M E T H O D
Three moves for every sentence
3. Doer after 'by', or 
1. Object to the front 2. Add be + past 
gone
Find who or what receives participle
the action and make it the Put the old subject after 'by'. Keep the tense of the original 
new subject. Drop it if it's obvious, verb. Only the form of 'be' 
unknown or unimportant.
Riya wrote the letter.  Passive: changes.
The letter ... The letter was written by wrote becomes was written
Riya.
A verb with no object (sleep, arrive, go) has no passive. 'The baby slept' stays as it is.
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T E N S E  B Y  T E N S E
The same sentence in every tense
Tense Active Passive
Present simple She cleans the room. The room is cleaned by her.
Present continuous She is cleaning the room. The room is being cleaned by her.
Present perfect She has cleaned the room. The room has been cleaned by her.
Past simple She cleaned the room. The room was cleaned by her.
Past continuous She was cleaning the room. The room was being cleaned by her.
Past perfect She had cleaned the room. The room had been cleaned by her.
Future simple She will clean the room. The room will be cleaned by her.
Future perfect She will have cleaned the room. The room will have been cleaned by her.
Modals She must clean the room. The room must be cleaned by her.
Perfect continuous and future continuous forms are almost never put in the passive, and school exams skip them.
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T H E  T R I C K Y  O N E S
Six sentence types that catch students out
Yes or no questions Wh- questions Commands
Start with the helping verb. 'Who' becomes 'by whom'. Use 'let ... be' or a polite form.
Did he write it?  Passive: Was it Who broke this?  Passive: By Shut the gate.  Passive: Let the 
written by him? whom was this broken? gate be shut.
Two objects Negatives Vague doers
Either object can lead. The 'Not' sits after the first helping 
Drop someone, people, they.
person usually sounds better. verb.
Someone stole my bike.  Passive: 
He gave me a pen.  Passive: I was They didn't invite us.  Passive: We 
My bike was stolen.
given a pen by him. weren't invited by them.
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C O M M O N  M I S T A K E S
What examiners mark wrong every year
Use the past participle (V3), never the past 
NOT  The letter was wrote by Riya. SAY  The letter was written by Riya.
simple.
NOT  The work is being did. SAY  The work is being done. Same rule: be + V3.
NOT  The match will played tomorrow. SAY  The match will be played tomorrow. After will, can or must you still need 'be'.
Keep the preposition that belongs to the 
NOT  She was laughed by everyone. SAY  She was laughed at by everyone.
verb.
NOT  The baby was slept. SAY  The baby slept. No object, so no passive.
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Y O U R  T U R N
Change the voice
Answers are on the next slide. Drop the doer where it adds nothing.
1 The chef cooks the food. 7 Who broke the vase?
2 The boys are playing football. 8 We will announce the results tomorrow.
3 Has she finished the report? 9 You must follow the rules.
4 The police arrested the thief. 10 My father gave me a watch.
5 They were painting the walls. 11 Someone has stolen my bicycle.
6 Shut the window. 12 The children had eaten all the sweets.
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A N S W E R S
Check your work
1 The food is cooked by the chef. 7 By whom was the vase broken?
2 Football is being played by the boys. 8 The results will be announced tomorrow.
3 Has the report been finished by her? 9 The rules must be followed by you.
4 The thief was arrested by the police. 10 I was given a watch by my father.
5 The walls were being painted by them. 11 My bicycle has been stolen.
6 Let the window be shut. 12 All the sweets had been eaten by the children.
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K E E P  P R A C T I S I N G
50 more sentences, marked as 
you go 50
Q U E S T I O N S
The active and passive voice exercise on wizmantra.com has 50 questions 
with answers, from simple tenses to commands and questions.
https://www.wizmantra.com/english-practice/english-quiz/english-active-passive/
Live 1-on-1 spoken English classes online: https://www.wizmantra.com/explore-english-courses/
BUILD 1
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