Rules for Changing an Active Sentence into a Passive Sentence

 

Changing Active Sentences to Passive Sentences

Following Five Steps should be followed to change an active sentence into passive. These steps are applicable to all types of sentences except for Imperative Sentences. The steps for Imperative Sentences will be discussed later:

Step 1: Change the Object of the Active Sentence into the Subject of Passive Sentence.

The rules of changing Objects into Subjects and vice versa are mentioned below.

Step 2: Use of the Helping Verb of Passive Sentence.

The rules of using of Helping Verbs are discussed separately below.

Step 3: Use of Third Form of Verb.

Step 4: Use of “By”.

Step 5: Change the Subject of Active Sentence into the Object of Passive Sentence.

The rules of changing Subjects into Objects and vice versa are mentioned below.

Rules and Steps for Imperative Sentences

Imperative Sentences are the sentences in which a subject is not directly visible while performing an action.

For example, in the sentence “Open the Door”, the person opening the door is not directly visible. In other words, it can be said that there is no subject in the Imperative Sentences.

 

Following steps must be followed in order to change an Active Imperative Sentence into a Passive one.

Step 1: Use of “Let”.

Step 2: Change the Object of Active Sentence into the Subject of Passive Sentence.

Step 3: Use of “Be”.

Step 4: Use of Third form of Verb.

Rules for the change of Subject into Object and Object into Subject

The Subject or Object in the sentence could belong to two Parts of Speech. They could either be a Noun or a Pronoun. First, learn the rules for replacement of Nouns.

A “Noun” object will simply be replaced with A Noun Subject and vice versa.

Example: The Cat eats a Rat. (Active)

The Cat is Subject and A Rat is Object in this sentence.

Replacing the Object with Subject and Subject with Object:

A rat is eaten by the cat. (Passive)

Changing Object into Subject and Subject into Object if they or Pronouns:

Following is the Table of Pronouns:

Person	Subjective Case*	Possessive Case	Objective Case**
1st Person	I	My	Me
	We	Our	Us
2nd Person	You	Your	You
3rd Person	He	His	Him
	She	Her	Her
	It	Its	It
	They	Their	Them

*All the Pronouns used in a sentence as a Subject are always from Subjective Case Column.

**All the Pronouns used in a sentence as an Object are always from Objective Case Column.

Rule 1: Objective Case Pronouns will be changed into their respective Subjective Case Pronouns while changing Objects into Subject.

Rule 2: Subjective Case Pronouns will be changed into their respective Objective Case Pronouns while changing Subjects into Objects.

Rule 3: The pronouns of Possessive Case will remain the same i.e. there will be No Change in them.  

Examples:

You lent your books to him. (Active)

Your books were lent to him by you. (Passive)

 

In this example:

You (Active Sentence) is the Subjective Case of 2^nd Person’s Pronoun. It is replaced with Objective Case of 2^nd Person’s Pronoun which is again “You”.

Your (Active Sentence) is the Possessive Case of 2^nd Person’s Pronoun. Possessive cases of pronouns are not changed therefore, it is used as it is in the Passive Sentence.

Him (Active Sentence) is the Objective Case of the 3^rd Person’s Pronoun. It is replaced with 3^rdperson’s respective Subjective Case which is “He”.

Rules of the Use of Helping Verbs

Following table presents the changes of helping verbs of Active Sentences into the helping verbs of Passive Sentences:

Sr. No	Active Sentences		Passive Sentences
	Name of Tense	Helping Verbs	Name of Tense	Helping Verbs
Present Tenses
1	Present Indefinite	Do, Does or first form of verb with no helping verb	Present Continuous	Is, Am, Are
2	Present Continuous	Is, Am, Are	Present Continuous	Is being, am being, are being
3	Present Perfect	Has, Have	Present Perfect Continuous	Has been, Have been
4	Present Perfect Continuous	Has been, Have been	No Change
Past Tenses
5	Past Indefinite	Did or 2nd form of verb with no Helping Verb	Past Continuous	Was, Were
6	Past Continuous	Was, Were	Past Continuous	Was being, Were being
7	Past Perfect	Had	Past Perfect Continuous	Had been
8	Past Perfect Continuous	Had been	No Change
Future Tenses
9	Future Indefinite	Will, Shall	Future Continuous	Will be, Shall be
10	Future Continuous	Will be, Shall be	No Change
11	Future Perfect	Will have, Shall have	Future Perfect Continuous	Will have been, Shall have been
12	Future Perfect Continuous	Will have been, Shall have been	No Change

 

 

Practice Questions

 

Change the following Active Voice Sentences into Passive Voice:

1.    He requested me to lend him some money.

2.    They have taken us back to dark ages.

3.    Why do dogs bark at strangers?

4.    We will be recompensating for our losses very soon.