Active/Passiv Voice

   

 ACTIVE / PASSIVE VOICE :--

    The most famous sentence, most of us are familiar with, is:

  1.  Ram killed Ravana. - Active Voice

  2.  Ravana was killed by Ram. - Passive Voice

    Here the first sentence is said to be in Active Voice and the second sentence in Passive Voice.

  *  A sentence is said to be in Active Voice when the subject does something.

  * Similarly, a sentence is said to be in Passive Voice when something is done to the subject.

 1.   In the first sentence Ram is the ‘subject’ and Ravana is the ‘object’. In the active voice sentence Ram i.e., the subject has killed the object Ravana.

 2.   In the second sentence Ravana is the subject but he allowed himself to be killed by subject Ram. Here the subject is Passive. Therefore, it is called Passive voice.

    e.g. :-

    Raju kicked the ball.

    In this sentence :-

       Raju is the ‘subject’ and ball is the ' object'.

       The word kicked is the verb.

    Here it must be noted that:

        ‘I’ becomes ‘me’ in Passive voice

        ‘We’ becomes ‘us’

        ‘You’ remains ‘you’

        ‘He’ becomes ‘him’

        ‘She’ becomes ‘her’

        ‘It’ remains ‘it’

        ‘They’ becomes ‘them.’

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      VOICE :--  Voice is that form of verb which shows whether what is denoted by the Subject "does something" or "has something done to it".

     There are two special forms for verbs called voice :

         1. Active voice
 
         2. Passive voice

  
      1. ACTIVE   VOICE :--

         * The active voice is the "normal" voice.

         * This is the voice that we use most of the time.

         *  In the active voice, the object receives the action of the verb:

        * ACTIVE ==    subject    +    verb     +  object
      
  
          active ==   Cat        +        eats     +   fish.

          active ==   Sohan    +       pushes    +    Ritesh.

   

   In active sentences,

         *  the thing doing the action is the subject of the sentence and

        *   the thing receiving the action is the object.

    Most sentences are active.

         [Thing doing action] + [verb] + [thing receiving action]

    Examples:

               * Ram  + drinks +  the milk.

               * Sonu + pushes + Monu.

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      2. PASSIVE   VOICE :--

       * The passive voice is less usual.

       *  In the passive voice, the subject receives the action of the verb.

       * The object of the active verb becomes the subject of the passive verb:

       *   Passive ==   subject +  verb   +   object
       
          passive ==    Fish  +  is  eaten  + by  cat.

          passive == Ritesh + is  pushed  +  by Sohan.

    In passive sentences, the thing receiving the action is the subject of the sentence and the thing doing the action is optionally included near the end of the sentence.

  * We can use the passive form if we think that the thing receiving the action is more important or should be emphasized.

  * We can also use the passive form if we do not know who is doing the action or if we do not want to mention who is doing the action.

 [ receiving  thing ] + [be] + [past participle of verb] + [by] + [thing doing action]

     Examples:

               * The milk +   is    +   drunk    +   by   + Ram.

               * Monu     +    is    +   pushed  +   by  + Sonu.

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 Construction of the Passive Voice:
       

       The structure of the passive voice is very simple:

       subject  +  auxiliary verb (be)  +  main verb (past participle)

      * The main verb is always in its past participle form.

       Look at these examples:

      * subject  +  auxiliary verb (to be)  +  main verb (past participle)
    

       Water           +        is             +          drunk            +           by everyone.

       200 people   +       are           +            employed   +           by this company.

       I                    +       was          +        paid                 +       in euro.

       We               +        are            +       not paid           +        in dollars.

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        Use of the Passive Voice
   
      We use the passive when:

       * we want to make the active object more important

       * we do not know the active subject

       * we give importance to active object (President Kennedy).

       * President Kennedy was killed by Lee Harvey Oswald.

       * we give importance to active subject unknown.

       * My wallet has been stolen. (?)

 **   Note: 

  We always use by to introduce the passive object (Fish are eaten by cats).

    Look at this sentence:

       * He was killed with a gun.

   Normally we use by to introduce the passive object. But the gun is not the active subject. The gun did not kill him. He was killed by somebody with a gun.

      In the active voice, it would be:

       * Somebody killed him with a gun.

         The gun is the instrument.

         Somebody is the "agent" or "doer".

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        Conjugation for the Passive Voice:

      We can form the passive in any tense. In fact, conjugation of verbs in the passive tense is rather easy, as the main verb is always in past participle form and the auxiliary verb is always be.

    * The boy was bitten by a dog.

    * He is loved by all.

      Here are some examples with most of the possible tenses :

        * infinitive                                          to be washed

        * simple present                               It is washed.

        * past                                                  It was washed.

        * future                                               It will be washed.

        * conditional                                      It would be washed.

        * continuous present                       It is being washed.

        * past                                                 It was being washed.

        * future                                              It will be being washed.

        * conditional                                     It would be being washed.

        * perfect simple present                 It has been washed.

        * past                                                 It had been washed.

        * future                                              It will have been washed.

        * conditional                                     It would have been washed.

        * perfect continuous present         It has been being washed.

        * past                                                 It had been being washed.

        * future                                              It will have been being washed.

        * conditional                                     It would have been being washed.

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