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One can learn and use it for personal knowledge only.
Simple Present Tense
Examples:
Active: He reads a novel.
Passive: A novel is read.
Active: He does not cook food.
Passive: Food is not cooked by him.
Active: Does he purchase books?
Passive: Are books purchased by him?
Active: They grow plants.
Passive: Plants are grown by them.
Active: She teaches me.
Passive: I am taught by her.
Present Continuous Tense
Examples:
Active: Sima is singing a song.
Passive: A song is being sung by Sima.
Active: Kritika is not chopping vegetables.
Passive: Vegetables are not being chopped by Kritika.
Present Perfect Tense
Examples:
Active: Nitesh has challenged her.
Passive: She has been challenged by Nitesh.
Active: Radhika has not written an article.
Passive: An article has not been written by Radhika.
Active: Have they left the apartment?
Passive: Has apartment been left by them?
Active: She has created this masterpiece.
Passive: This masterpiece has been created by her.
Active: I have read the newspaper.
Passive: The newspaper has been read by me.
Active: Is Ritika buying a table?
Passive: Is a table being bought by Ritika?
Active: They are serving poor people.
Passive: Poor people are being served by them.
Active: She is disturbing Dinesh.
Passive: Dinesh is being disturbed by her.
Simple Past Tense
Examples:
Active: Reema cleaned the floor.
Passive: The floor was cleaned by Reema.
Active: Aisha bought a bicycle.
Passive: A bicycle was bought by Aisha.
Active: Naman called my friends.
Passive: My friends were called by Naman.
Active: I saved him.
Passive: He was saved by me.
Active: Miraya paid the bills.
Passive: The bills were paid by Miraya.
Past Continuous Tense
Examples:
Active: Nitika was painting the wall.
Passive: The wall was being painted by Nitika.
Active: Manish was repairing the car.
Passive: The car was being repaired by Manish.
Active: Were you reciting the poem?
Passive: Was the poem being recited?
Active: She was baking the cake.
Passive: The cake was being baked by her.
Active: She was watching me.
Passive: I was being watched by her.
Past Perfect Tense
Examples:
Active: Misha had cleaned the floor.
Passive: The floor had been cleaned by Misha.
Active: Vidhi had not received the parcel.
Passive: The parcel had not been received by Vidhi.
Active: Vishal had solved the doubt.
Passive: The doubt had been solved.
Active: Had they caught the thief?
Passive: Had the thief been caught by them?
Active: I had paid fifty thousand.
Passive: Fifty thousand had been paid by me.
Simple Future Tense
Examples:
Active: Kriya will sew the bag.
Passive: The bag will be sewed by Kriya.
Active: Disha will not arrange the things.
Passive: The things will not be arranged by Disha.
Active: Will you mop the floor?
Passive: Will the floor be mopped by you?
Active: They will post the letter.
Passive: The letter will be posted.
Active: Reena will save money.
Passive: Money will be saved by Reena.
Future Perfect Tense
Examples:
Active: They will have brought the toy.
Passive: The toy will have been brought by them.
Active: Nimesh will not have changed the table cover.
Passive: The table cover will not have been changed by Nimesh.
Active: Will she have written the notes.
Passive: Will the notes have been written by her?
Active: They will have won the match.
Passive: The match will have been won by them.
Active: Vijay will have washed a shirt.
Passive: A shirt will have been washed by Vijay.
Exercises
1. Complete the sentences with the correct passive form of the verbs in brackets. Use the Present
Simple.
a. English ____________________ (speak) in many countries.
b. The post ______________________ (deliver) at about 7 o’clock every morning.
c. ______________________________ (the building/use) any more?
d. How often ______________________________ (the Olympic Games(hold)?
e. How _______________________ (your name/spell)?
f. My salary _____________________ (pay) every month.
g. These cars _________________________ (not make) in Japan.
h. The name of the people who committed the crime _____________________ (not know).
i. His travel expenses ________________________ (not pay) by his company.
2. Complete the sentences with the correct passive form of the verbs in brackets. Use the Past Simple.
a. My car ______________________ (repair) last week.
b. This song ________________________ (not write) by John Lennon.
c. ________________________________ (the phone/answer) by a young girl?
d. The film ________________________ (make) ten years ago.
e. When ______________________________ (tennis/invent)?
f. The car ________________________ (not damaged) in the accident.
g. The original building _________________________ (pull) down in 1965.
h. Where ______________________________ (this pot/make)?
i. When _______________________________ (this bridge/build)?
3. Change the following sentences into passive sentences using the words in brackets.
a. We sell tickets for all shows at the Box Office. (Tickets for all shows/sell/at the Box Office)
b. Thomas Edison invented the electric light bulb. (The electric light bulb/invent/by Thomas Edison)
c. Someone painted the office last week. (The office/paint/last week)
d. Several people saw the accident. (The accident/see/by several people)
e. Where do they make these video recorders? (Where/these video recorders/make)
4. Rewrite these sentences in the passive voice.
a. Someone built this house 200 years ago.
b. A thief stole my purse.
c. The police will arrest the robbers.
d. They produce cars in this factory.
e. They serve breakfast at eight o’clock every day.
f. People throw away tones of rubbish every day.
g. They make coffee in Brazil.
h. Someone stole Jim’s bike lat night.
5. Rewrite these sentences in the passive voice.
a. They will build a new bridge next year.
b. Brian Brody directed The Ultimate Space Adventure.
c. Pierre Matie will design her costume.
d. Someone found my wallet.
e. One of the students broke the window.
f. They will deliver my computer on Monday.
g. Mary invited Paul to her birthday party.
h. British astronomers discovered a new planet.
6. Form the question.
a. Paper is made from wood. Is paper made from wood ?
b. The telephone was invented by Mr Bell.
c. This picture was painted by Peter.
d. The thieves will be arrested by the police.
e. Champagne is made in France.
f. The letters will be sent next week.
g. The animals are fed three times a day.
h. This article was written by Stanley.
i. CDs are made of plastic.
j. The party was organised by Paul.
7. Read and complete. Use Past Simple.
a. The toothbrush / invent / in the 15th century.
b. The first public basketball game / play / in 1892.
c. The first eyeglasses / wear / in the 1200s.
d. The first bicycle / ride in 1791.
e. The first hot dog / eat / in the 1860s.
f. The first CDs / sell / in the 1980s.
g. The first electric guitar / play / in 1923.
h. The first computer mouse / use / 1964.
8. Complete with the passive. Use Present Simple.
a. This programme _______________________ (watch) by millions of people.
b. Paper __________________________ (make) from wood.
c. Hundreds of people _______________________ (kill) in accidents every year.
d. London __________________________ (visit) by thousands of tourists every year.
e. The biology class _________________________ (teach) by Mr Green.
f. English _____________________ (speak) all over the world.
g. Lunch _____________________ (serve) at twelve o’clock.
h. Books _____________________ (write) by authors.
9. Put the verbs in brackets into Past Simple Passive.
Two men _________________________ (see) breaking into a house in my street last night. The police
_____________________ (call) and they arrived very quickly. One man _____________________
(catch) immediately. The other escaped, but he ______________________ (find) very soon. Both men
_____________________ (take) to the police station where they _________________________
(question) separately by a police officer. The two men ________________________ (charge) with
burglary.
10. Rewrite the following passage in the Passive.
Somebody has stolen a bus from outside the school. Some children saw the thief. The police are
searching for the bus now. They will use the children’s descriptions to catch the thief.
11. Rewrite the following passage in the Passive.
Some people saw a UFO in the sky above London last night. They reported it to the police. The army
sent a helicopter to look at it more closer. The UFO shot the helicopter down and killed both men in it. People have given photographs of the UFO to the police. Experts are looking at them now.
12. Rewrite the following passage in the Passive.
Someone broke into a local jewellery shop yesterday. The owner had just locked up the shop when a
robber with a gun threatened him. The robber told him to unlock the shop and give him all the
diamonds in the safe. Then the robber tied him up. The police have organized a search for the robber.
They hope they will find him in a few days. Doctors are treating the owner of the shop for shock.
13. Rewrite the following passage in the Passive.
My uncle painted this picture. Someone has offered him a lot of money for it. He will deliver the
painting tomorrow. When they give him the money, he will tell them the truth. He painted it one night
while he was sleepwalking!
14. Rewrite the following passage in the Passive.
Our school is organizing a contest. The teachers will choose the best project about the environment.
The students must include pictures and drawings in their projects. The students will also have to do all
the writing themselves. The school will give the winner a set of encyclopaedias.
15. Turn from Active to Passive in two ways.
a. He gave me a present.
b. The waiter will bring us the bill.
c. Her mother bought Mary some sweets.
d. Bob has sold Ted a second-hand car.
e. Larry is going to send a letter to Tom.
16. Turn from Active to Passive.
a. Someone is helping her with the housework.
b. The mail-order company sent Mrs Green a parcel.
c. My friend sent me an invitation.
d. The secretary has given Mrs Jones some letters.
e. The traffic warden had already given him a ticket for illegal parking.
f. John gave Elizabeth that beautiful ring.
g. Her students have sent her flowers.
h. He must give the message to the right person.
i. We teach our students English and French.
j. Someone bought flowers for the bride.
k. They showed the tourists the sights of Athens.
l. They pay her an excellent salary.
m. They paid the artist £1,000 for his painting.
17. Rewrite these sentences in the passive voice.
1. They sell oysters in the shop next door.
2. They haven’t delivered the food yet.
3. Shakespeare wrote King Lear.
4. They have to answer the questions on this sheet.
5. Has anybody put the cases upstairs?
6. Someone should take this rubbish away.
7. They’ll ask you a lot of questions.
8. Someone’s going to send her some flowers.
9. They didn’t pay me much for that job.
10. Have they offered him a better job?
11. They told us a secret.
12. Would they lend me their car?
13. People should send their complaints to the head office.
14. They had to postpone the meeting because of illness.
15. They are going to hold next year’s congress in San Francisco.
16. The bill includes service.
17. People don’t use this road very often.
18. They cancelled all the flights because of fog.
19. Somebody accused me of stealing the money.
20. They are building a new ring-road round the city.
21. I didn’t realize that someone was recording our conversation.
22. They have changed the date of the meeting.
23. Brian told me that somebody had attacked and robbed him in the street.
24. You should open the wine about three hours before you use it.
25. Somebody had cleaned my shoes and brushed my suit.
26. We use this room only on special occasions.
27. In some districts farmers use pigs to find truffles.
28. John gave Elizabeth that beautiful ring.
29. They have offered Sarah a very good job.
30. The estate agent showed the house to the young people.
31. We will pay the gardener a lot of money.
32. Someone is going to repair the roof next week.
33. They can’t find Joanna.
34. They should decorate the room with flowers.
35. Archaeologists have discovered an ancient temple.
36. We will put all these things into boxes.
37. The firefighters rescued the teenagers from the burning building.
38. The youngest student in the class has written the best composition.
39. The children send me messages every day.
40. The villagers gave the travellers food and water.
41. A very talented young girl wrote the story.
42. They are going to finish the new road in a few days.
43. They cancelled the match because of the rain.
44. You must not cross this line.
45. They had picked the oranges before the storm.
46. Professor Smith should write the book.
47. Mr Elliot will pay the workers.
48. Two men were following Tom.
49. Millions of people use the Internet every day.
50. They gave Bob a CD player for his birthday.
51. The prime minister will give a medal to the winners.
52. She is telling the children a story.
53. They’ve offered Sally a job.
54. Poisonous chemicals have polluted the river.
55. Doctor Simms is examining her.
56. You must stop him now.
57. Someone gave them free tickets for the concert.
