Active Voice and Passive Voice > 6 Advanced Level Rules for Voice Changing

We’ve learned about the
basic concept to change the voice of any sentence. Here in this article we’ll find some special rules to change the voice.

 Rule 1:  How to change the voice of a sentence Modal Auxiliary verb + have:

How to change the voice of a sentence like "I must have done this".

Read more: Modal auxiliary verb

Structure:

Active – Subject + modal verb + have + main verb (3rd form) + object.
Passive – Subject (object of active) + modal verb + have + been + main verb (3rd form) + by + object (subject of active).

Examples-
Active – You will have submitted the assignment.
Passive – The assignment will have been submitted by you.

Active – He ought to have checked it.
Passive – It ought to have been checked by him.

Read more: Different verb forms.

 Rule 2:  How to change the voice of an infinitive:

 Infinitive is a non-finite verb having a structure of to + verb (base form).


Structure I:

Active – Subject + helping verb (be verb, have verb) + infinitive (to + main verb) + object.
Passive – Subject + helping verb + to be + main verb (3rd form) + by + object.

Examples-
Active – We have to finish the work.
Passive –  The work has to be finished by us.

Active – He is to send the mail.
Passive – The mail is to be sent by him.

Active – The police are to catch the criminal.
Passive –  The criminal is to be caught (by the police).
“by the police” is no more necessary in the line, as a criminal is always caught by the police.

Active – I am to play cricket.
Passive – Cricket is to be played by me.



Structure II: 

Active – There + be verb + subject + infinitive (to + main verb).
Passive – There + be verb + subject + +to be + main verb (3rd form).

Examples-
Active – There is nothing to do.
Passive – There is nothing to be done.

Active – There is no time to waste.
Passive – There is no time to be wasted.

Active – There is something to feel.
Passive – There is something to be felt.

Active – There is nothing to lose.
Passive – There is nothing to be lost.



Structure III:

Active – It + be verb + noun + infinitive (to + main verb) + object.
Passive – It + be verb + noun + to be + main verb (3rd form) + object.

Examples- 
Active – It is time to read books.
Passive – It us time for books to be read.

Active – It is time to play a music.
Passive – It is time for a music to be played.

Active – It is time to write an article.
Passive – It is time for an article to be written.



Structure IV:

Active – Subject + main verb + noun/pronoun + infinitive (to+verb) + object.
Passive – Subject + main verb of active + object (noun/pronoun of active) + to be + verb (3rd form) + by + object (subject of active).

Examples-
Active – I want Jack to write a letter.
Passive – I want a letter to be written by Jack.

Active – I like people to praise me.
Passive – I like to be praised (by people).

 Rule 3:  How to change the voice of a sentence starting in ‘Let’:

Structure:

Active – Let + indirect object + main verb (base form) + direct object.
Passive – Let + direct object + be + main verb (3rd form) + by + indirect object.

Examples-
Active – Let me finish my points. (Indirect object- ‘me’, direct object – ‘my points’).
Passive – Let my points be finished (by me).

Active – Let her draw a portrait. (Indirect object- ‘her’, direct object- ‘a portrait’).
Passive – Let a portrait be drawn by her.

Active – Let him join our group. (Indirect object- ‘him’, direct object- ‘our group’).
Passive – Let our group be joined by him.

Active – Let Akil come to the show. (Indirect object – ‘Akil’, direct object – ‘the show’).
Passive – Let the show be come by Akil.



If there is no direct object in the active voice, then —

Structure:

Active – Let + us + main verb (base form).
Passive – It is suggested that + we should + main verb (base form).
— Here the phrase ‘it is suggested’ consists of Subject (It) + be verb (is) + 3rd form of main verb (suggested), which is a passive structure.

Examples-
Active – Let us swim.
Passive – It is suggested that we should swim.

Active – Let us walk.
Passive – It is suggested that we should walk.

Active – Let us sleep.
Passive – It is suggested that we should sleep.

Active –  Let us play together.
Passive – It is suggested that we should play together.

 Rule 4:  How to change the voice of a verb in a sentence with prepositions.

There can be 3 uses of prepositions (preposition + noun) in a sentence. As -

I. A part of the subject.

II. A part of the object.

III. A part of the verb.

IV. Independent

Use I: 

preposition + noun can be a part of the subject. 

E.g. -

• The students of class V are taking a test.
• The people of India love musics.
• The bird in the nest is feeding its nestlings.

In the sentences above, the underlined parts are the subjects. Each subject, as you can see, contains a preposition + noun.

Now, when you change the voice, the whole subject will become object of the passive.

For example,

Active – The students of class V are taking a test.

Passive – A test is being taken by the students of class V.

Active – The people of India love music.

Passive – Musics are loved by The people of India .

Active – The bird in the nest is feeding the nestlings.

Passive – The nestlings are being fed by the bird in the nest.

Use II: 

preposition + noun can be a part of the object. 

E.g. -

• Peter broke the window of the car.
• They repaired the A.C. in room number 53.
• We were washing the floor of the room.
• The child tore some pages of the book.

the underlined parts are the objects. Each object includes a preposition + noun (written in bold).

When used with passive voice, the whole object, including the preposition + noun part becomes the subject of the passive verb. 

As in -

Active – Peter broke the window of the car.

Passive – The window of the car was broken by Peter.

Active – They repaired the A.C. in room number 53.

Passive – The A.C. in room number 53 was repaired by them.

Active – We were cleaning the floor of the room.

Passive – The floor of the room was being cleaned by us.

Active – The child tore some pages of the book.

Passive – Some pages of the book were torn by the child.

Use III: 

Preposition can be a part of the verb. 

E.g. -

Look at the sentences –

• I turned on the light.
• She did not bear with the insult.
• The child is looking at the flower.
• Manan puts on new shoes.

The underlined parts in the above sentences are the verbs. Each part has two words – a verb and a preposition. 

The verb, together with the preposition acts as a single verb. This kind of verbs are called phrasal verbs or group verbs.

How’ll you change the voice of phrasal verbs?

Let’s see.

Active – I turned on the light.

Passive – The light was turned on by me.

What has actually happened?

The verb turned on becomes was turned on in passive.

In the active, turned on is in simple past tense as the verb turned is in its 2nd form (M.V.2).

In the passive, it became was turned on and the verb turned is in its past participle form (M.V.3).

The preposition on did not change its position. It is stick to the verb it follows.

Structure:

Active – Subject + (M.V.+preposition) + object. 

Passive – Object + to-be + (M.V.3+preposition) + by + subject. 

Other examples:

Active – She did not bear with the insult.

Passive – The insult was not borne with by her.

Active – The child is looking at the flower.

Passive – The flower is being looked at by the child.

Active – Manan puts on new shoes.

Passive – New shoes is put on by Manan.

[All three forms of put is the same]

Active – She laughs at me.
Passive – I am laughed at by her.

Active – My sister takes care of the plants. (Here ‘care’ is a noun)
Passive – The plants are taken care of by my sister.

Some definite prepositions

Laugh at, aim at, arrive at, surprise at, look for, search for, go to, come to, please with, acquaint with, supply with, cope with, sympathize with, prefer to, put down.
These phrases are used as a single word (verb).

Type IV:

Sometimes the preposition+noun is not a part of "Subject + Verb + Object", it is independent. 

Structure:

Active –  Subject + verb + object + preposition + noun.
Passive – Subject (object of active) + be verb + main verb (3rd from) + by + object (subject of active)+ preposition + noun.

The portion of ‘preposition + others’ can also be placed before ‘by’.


Examples-
Active – I bought a pen for my sister.
Passive – A pen was bought by me for my sister. Or, 

A pen was bought for my sister by me.

Active – He does not play football to earn money.
Passive – Football is not played by him to earn money. /

 Football is not played to earn money by him.

Active – Are you wasting time on videogames?
Passive – Is time being wasted by you on videogames? / 

Is time being wasted on videogames by you?

 Rule 5:  How to change the voice of a verb that has a Direct Object as well as an Indirect Object.

“I gave him a book.” — in this sentence, there are two objects — i) ‘him’, ii) ‘a book’.  Here ‘him’ is the indirect object, and ‘a book’ is the direct object.



Let’s have a look at the structure –

Structure:

Active – Subject + verb + indirect object + direct object.
Passive –
When the indirect object of active is used as the subject of passive voice –
Subject (indirect object) + be verb + main verb (3rd form) + direct object + by + object.

When the direct object of active is used as the subject of passive voice –
Subject (direct object) + be verb + main verb (3rd from) + to / for + by + object.

Examples-
Active – I gave him a book.
Passive – He was given a book by me. Or, A book was given to him by me.

Active – She did not bought him a t-shirt.
Passive – He was not bought a t-shirt by her. Or, A t-shirt was not bought for him by her.

Active – Did you tell Rabi the story?
Passive – Was Rabi told the story by you? Or, Is the story told to Rabi by you?

Thank you...

Credit: Lucent's General English.