Active & Passive Voice | English Grammar Class 8 PDF Download

Active & Passive Voice

1. Consider the following sentences:
   Lata sings a song.
   A song is sung by Lata.
   There is practically no difference in the meanings of these two sentences. These are two different ways of presenting the same thing. But in the first sentence the Subject performs the action while in the second sentence, the Subject of the Verb is acted upon. It means that it (the Subject) becomes the object in the second sentence.
   Thus, the voice shows whether the Subject of a Verb acts or is acted upon.
   Active Voice: When the Subject of a Verb acts, the Verb is said to be in the Active Voice ; as—
   I made a mistake.
   Passive Voice: When the object of the Active Voice becomes the Subject, the Verb is said to be in the Passive Voice ; as—
   A mistake was made by me.
   The Subject dominates in Active Voice but the Object dominates in Passive Voice.
   Note: It is only the form of the verb in a sentence which shows whether the subject is the doer or the receiver of the action. A sentence in passive voice may or may not have the ‘by’ phrase attached. Thus in the above sentences, ‘A mistake was made’ is a complete sentence. 
2. Rules for changing a Verb from the Active Voice into the Passive Voice:
   • The object of the Active Verb is made the Subject of the Passive Verb.
   • The Subject of the Active Verb is made the object of some Preposition (generally ‘by’).
   • The Verb of the Active Voice gets the Past Participle form of the Finite Verb and some form of the verb ‘to be’ [be, is, am. are, has been, was, were, had been, will be, is being etc.) will be used before it in the passive voice.
   • Some vague and indefinite subjects like ‘everyone’, ‘they’, ‘people’, ‘someone’, ‘somebody’, ‘everybody’, ‘anybody’, etc. are dropped if they are the subjects of the active voice. If so, the preposition ‘by’ is also not used.
   • The Tense of the Verb does not change. 
     Example: He has done his work. (Active)
     His work has been done by him. (Passive)
3. The Pronouns [when these act as subject) are changed as given below:

   
   

4. The following table gives the form of the verb ‘see’ in Passive Voice in the various Tenses:
   TENSE CHART [Passive Voice)
   

Note: The following four types of sentences cannot be changed into passive voice:

• Present Perfect Continuous.
• Past Perfect Continuous.
• Future Continuous.
• Future Perfect Continuous. 

Exercise

Q.1. Rewrite the following sentences putting the Verbs given against them in the appropriate Passive Voice form:

(i) She ______ up by her aunt. (bring)

was brought 

(ii) Invitation cards ______ to all her friends. (send)

have been sent 

(iii) You will ______ to the feast. (invite)

be invited 

(iv) The result ______ on Monday. (declare)

was declared/will be declared 

(v) They ______ at the report of the gun. (alarm)

were alarmed 

(vi) We ______ at his failure. (shock) 

were shocked 

Q.2. Change the voice of the following sentences:

(i) She sings a sweet song.

A sweet song is sung by her. 

(ii) Do you not play hockey?

Is hockey not played by you? 

(iii) Does he sell lottery tickets?

Are lottery tickets sold by him? 

(iv) I am bending the branch.

The branch is being bent by me. 

(v) Is she boiling potatoes?

Are the potatoes being boiled by her? 

(vi) Are the servants bringing tea? 

Is tea being brought by the servants?

Q.3. Rearrange the following into meaningful sentences:

(i) this novel / Premchand / was / by / written

This novel was written by Premchand. 

(ii) the brave / admired / everywhere / are

The brave are admired everywhere. 

(iii) a doll / the baby / given / was

The baby was given a doll. 

(iv) them / I / known / am / to

I am known to them. 

(v) by / the door / whom / opened / was ?

By whom was the door opened? 

(vi) him / a reward / to / given / was

A reward was given to him. 

(vii) one / one’s / keep / should / promise

One should keep one’s promise. 

(viii) kept / be / should / promise 

Promise should be kept. 

Q.4. Fill in the blanks in the following choosing one word each for every blank:

(i) I ______ the door.

opened 

(ii) The gate ______ by the gatekeeper.

was opened 

(iii) My pocket ______ been picked.

has 

(iv) The work is ______ done.

being 

(v) I ______ taught to read English.

was 

(vi) He is ______ a wise man.

considered 

(vii) What cannot ______ cured must be.

be, endured 

(viii) He was ______ a chair. 

offered 

Q.5. The following passage has not been edited. There is a word missing in each line. Find the missing word and write it along with one word that comes before it and the one that comes after it.

He asked to go down to the end of (a) ______
the garden. He was also to wash himself in water of the river there. The same (b) ______
water was and sprinkled over everything (c) ______
which had changed into gold by Mida’s (d) ______
touch. The king felt a weight had lifted (e) ______
from his heart. He freed of the golden touch. (f) ______

(a) He was asked
(b) also told to
(c) was brought and
(d) had been changed
(e) had been lifted
(f) He was freed 

Q.6. The following passage has not been edited. There is a word missing in each line. Find the missing word and write it along with one word that comes before it and the one that comes after it.

I elected to the Committee of the society. (a) ______
I was in advance that 1 was supposed to attend (b) ______
every meeting. But I was not much to (c) ______
speaking. My friends called me a drone. The banter appreciated. A drone is (d) ______
generally to be a thorough idler. Not that (e) ______
I was not to speak but the words failed me. (f) ______

(a) I was elected
(b) was told in
(c) much used to
(d) banter was appreciated
(e) generally thought to
(f) not willing to 

Q.7. Fill in the blanks in the following sentences using one of the options from the brackets:

(i) A snake ______ (kill/killed/was killed/has been killed) by him yesterday.

was killed 

(ii) We ______ (shock/shocked/are shocked/is shocked) at his failure.

are shocked 

(iii) This could be ______ (do/did/does/done) by you easily.

done 

(iv) The dog was ______ (run/ran/running/had run) over by a car. 

run 

Q.8. Underlined words in the following sentences have been wrongly used. Supply the correct word/words from the options given below each sentence:

(i) The speaker be cheered loudly when he had finished.
(a) is
(b) are
(c) was
(d) being

  Correct Answer is Option (c)

(ii) She give a reward by the minister.
(a) gives
(b) gave
(c) was given
(d) was giving 

Correct Answer is Option (c)

(iii) He ask to go away by his boss yesterday.
(a) is asked
(b) was asked
(c) will be asked
(d) had been asked 

Correct Answer is Option (b)

(iv) Ram elect the president of the union by the students.
(a) election
(b) was elected
(c) were elected
(d) elected 

Correct Answer is Option (b)