How To Change Active Voice To Passive Voice

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Anna walked the dog. The dog was walked by Anna. 

I will do my homework. The homework will be done. 

The loud noise shocked William. William was shocked by the loud noise.

What’s the difference between each of those pairs  of sentences? One of them is the in active voice  

and one of them is in the passive voice. So how  can you tell the difference? That’s what this  

lesson is all about. Listen carefully because  there will be a test at the end of the lesson.

Well,  

the active voice and passive voice in  English all comes down to the ‘subject’  

and the ‘object’ of a sentence. The ‘subject’  is the person or thing doing something.  

The ‘object’ is having something done to it. For  example, in the sentence ‘Anna walked the dog’,  

Anna is the subject because she is doing  the action and the dog is the object because  

it is having that action done to it. In the sentence ‘I will do my homework’,  

the subject is ‘I’ because I am doing the  action and the object is ‘my homework’.  

In the sentence ‘The loud noise shocked William’,  the loud noise is the subject, because it is doing  

the action, in this case it is doing the shocking.  The object is William because he is being shocked. 

A sentence using the active voice can start with  the subject, followed by the verb, followed by the  

object, followed by the rest of the sentence.  For example: ‘Darren lost the book at school’.  

The subject is ‘Darren’, the verb is ‘lost’  or ‘to lose’ and the object is ‘the book’. 

A sentence using the passive voice is constructed  differently. This time, we start with the object,  

followed by the verb, followed by the subject.  For example: ‘The book was lost by Darren at  

school’. Again, the subject is ‘Darren’, the  verb is ‘lost’ and the object is ‘the book’.

So now we know the difference  between the active voice  

and the passive voice. But why do we use them? When constructing basic sentences in English, it  

is best to stick to the active voice to make sure  that your sentences are clear and direct. However,  

beyond that, English speakers will often choose  to use the active voice because it emphasises  

the person or thing who performs an action. For  example: “Isaac achieved an A in his first exam!”  

The active voice is the appropriate choice for  this sentence because it emphasises the person,  

Isaac, who did the action. If we said the same  sentence in the passive voice, it would be: “An  

A was achieved by Isaac in his first exam”. It’s  wordy and it’s not as clear or easy to understand.

However, there are circumstances when the passive  voice is more appropriate. For example, when you  

want to put the emphasis on the recipient of the  action, or on the action itself. For example:  

“The dress was handmade by Megan”. This is a  common pattern in passive voice sentences in the  

past tense: Object, was, the verb, by, subject.  ‘The dress’ is the object, ‘handmade’ is the  

action and ‘Megan’ is the subject. This puts the  dress itself and the action of making it by hand  

at the beginning of the sentence, telling the  listener that that is the most important part. 

Another time you might need to use the passive  voice is if you don’t want to include the subject,  

or if you don’t know who the subject is. For  example: “The bag was stolen on Sunday night”.  

Notice how in this sentence,  ‘the bag’ is the object as it has  

had the action done to it. It has been stolen.  

But there is no subject in this sentence because  who did the action is unknown or not relevant.

So remember: if the subject is at the beginning  of the sentence, followed by the verb,  

followed by the object, the sentence is using  the active voice. However, if the sentence  

begins with the object, followed by the verb,  followed by the subject, or if the sentence has  

no subject, then it is in the passive voice. Now it’s time for a quiz. I’m going to read  

out 3 sentences in the active voice and down in  the comments, I would like you to write those  

3 sentences using the passive voice. Then, I’m  going to give you 3 more sentences in the passive voice  

and I would like you to write them using the active voice.  

I want you to pause the video in-between all the sentences to allow you the time to write your answer.

There are a few different tenses that I'm gonna use so pay close attention to

the tense that I am saying so that you make sure that you use the same when you change from

active voice and the passive voice, and vice versa. Are you ready? Here we go. First three sentences.

Hopefully that wasn't too difficult. But how many  did you get right? Let me know. I can’t wait to  

read all of your answers in the comments. If you have a little spare time then why not  

come and join me in another lesson. Be sure  to come and join me also on social media  

where you'll find lots of other free English  resources, or come and check out my new website  

englishlikeanative.com hopefully see  you there sometime soon, take care bye.