Passive voice: Rephrasing sentences into passive voice.

The passive voice is widely considered to be one of the most important aspects of English grammar, and there are a variety of purposes for which the passive voice is appropriate to be used. Every tense in English grammar has different rules for rephrasing sentences into passive voice. In today's lesson, we will learn what rephrasing passive voice means and how to rephrase active voice into passive voice.

Rephrasing of passive voice:

Before moving on to rephrasing passive voice, you must first understand what rephrasing is. Rephrasing is made of two words, i.e., re and phrase, which means to paraphrase the words or a sentence. Rephrasing passive voice means converting active voice sentences into passive voice. We usually follow certain rules and regulations for rephrasing a sentence into the passive voice.

Recommended: [ACTIVE INTO PASSIVE AND PASSIVE INTO ACTIVE]

Rules for rephrasing passive voice:

In this section, we will learn the rules of rephrasing passive voice via a chart.

Rephrasing the present simple passive voice:

The following rule can be used for rephrasing passive voice in the present simple tense:

Sub+ verb (3rd form) +Obj (Affirmative)

Is/am/are+ Sub+ verb (3rd form) + Obj? (Interrogative)

is/am/are not+verb (3rd form) +Obj. (Negative)

Rephrasing the present continuous passive voice:

Sub+ is/are being+ verb (3rd form) + Obj .(Affirmative)

Is/am/are+ Sub+ being+ verb (3rd form) + Obj? (Interrogative)

Sub+ is/am/are+ not+ being+ verb (3^rd form) +Obj. (Negative)

Rephrasing the present perfect tense passive voice:

You can rephrase the passive voice of the present perfect tense using the following method.

Sub+ have/has+ verb (3^rd form) +Obj (Affirmative)

Have/has + Sub+ verb (3^rd form) +Obj (Interrogative)

Sub+ have/has + not+ verb (3^rd form) +Obj (Negative)

Rephrasing the passive voice of the present perfect continuous tense:

In the same way, there is no rule for rephrasing the passive voice of the past perfect continuous tense because it does not exist in English grammar.

Rephrasing the passive voice of the past simple tense:

The rephrasing passive of the past simple tense in this way:

Sub+ was/were + verb (3^rd form) +Obj (Affirmative)

was/were + sub+ verb (3rd form) + Obj (Negative)

Sub+ was/were + not+ verb (3^rd form) +Obj (Negative)

Rephrasing passive voice of past continuous tense:

The rule for rephrasing passive voice in the past continuous tense is:

Sub+ was/were + being+ verb (3^rd form) +Obj (Affirmative)

was/were + Sub+ being+ verb (3^rd form) + Obj (Interrogative)

Sub+ was/were + were+ not+ being+ verb (3rd form) +Obj (Negative)

Rephrasing the past perfect tense passive voice:

Here is the chart for rephrasing the passive voice of the past perfect tense. You can follow the rule and rephrase the active voice of the past perfect tense into the passive voice.

Sub+ had+ verb (3^rd form) +Obj (Affirmative)

Had + Sub+ verb (3^rd form) +Obj (Interrogative)

Sub+ had + not+ verb (3^rd form) +Obj (Negative)

Rephrasing the future simple passive voice:

In the same way, you can learn the rephrasing of the passive in the future simple tense by going through this rule:

Sub+ will+ be+ verb (3^rd form) +Obj (Affirmative)

Will+ Sub+ be+ verb (3^rd form) +Obj (Interrogative)

Sub+ will+ not+ be+ verb (3^rd form) +Obj (Negative)

Rephrasing passive voice of Imperative Sentences:

Rephrasing the passive voice of Imperative sentences is quite different. As imperative sentences do not contain a subject, they are always without a subject. For this reason, the rephrasing passive voice of imperative sentences is unlike the rest of the tenses in English grammar. Let’s look at some examples of rephrasing the passive voice of imperative sentences.

Do the sums of factorization. (Active)

Let the sums of factorization be done. (Passive)

Harry, catch the bus.

Let the bus be caught by Harry.

Let+ subject+ be+ verb (3^rd form)+ object.

20 sentences of rephrasing passive voice:

In this section, we will provide you with 20 sentences of rephrasing passive voice. You can learn them and evaluate them yourself.

• The naughty student made a disturbance in the class (Active).

A disturbance was caused by the naughty student in the class (passive).

• The fire has caught the oldest building. (Active)

The oldest building has been caught by fire. (Passive)

• Someone had stolen an old woman’s purse. (Active)

An old woman’s purse had been stolen by someone. (Passive)

• A fisherman caught a precious fish (Active)

A precious fish was caught by a fisherman (Passive).

• Does she hide my belongings? (Active)

Are my belongings hidden by her? (Passive)

• A humanitarian organization helped the flood affected. (Active)

The flood affected was helped by a humanitarian organization. (Passive)

• Neeta posts videos on TikTok (Active).

Videos on TikTok are posted by Neeta. (Passive)

• They will get no results in a hurry. (Active)

No results will be gotten in a hurry by them (Passive).

Or

No results in a hurry will be gotten by them.

• The noise of a crying baby frightened me. (Active)

I was frightened by the noise of a crying baby. (Passive)

• Mr. Jameel has sold the new house in San Francisco. (Active)

The new house has been sold by Mr. Jameel in San Francisco. (Passive)

• The students’ project pleased the panel. (Active)

The panel was pleased by the students’ project. (Passive)

• Shankar always admires his first trip to Dubai. (Active)

His first trip to Dubai is always admired by Shankar. (Passive)

• Maria has sung a melodious song. (Active)

A melodious song has been sung by Maria. (Passive)

• I used the Zoom app for an online class. (Active)

The Zoom app for an online class was used by me. (Passive)

• Payal gifted Karishma a storybook for her birthday. (Active)

Karishma was gifted a storybook for her birthday by Payal.

Or

A storybook was gifted to Karishma on her birthday by Payal. (Passive)

• Give to Manisha. (Active)

Let it be given to Manisha. (Passive)

• My mother is looking after Grandma. (Active)

Grandma is being looked after by my mother. (Passive)

• Rinka used to spend a lot of money. (Active)

Much money was used to spend by Rinka. (Passive)

• Yesterday, the education minister called off the meeting due to bad weather. (Active)

Yesterday, the meeting was called off by the education minister due to bad weather. (Passive)

• Nadeem is inviting Mayank to his wedding. (Active)

Mayank is being invited by Nadeem to his wedding (Passive).

Exercise of rephrasing passive voice:

Here is the exercise of rephrasing passive voice. Do it and test yourself on how much you have read up on rephrasing passive voice.

• Natasha’s parents granted her permission to go for a hike with her friends.

• Is Madhu doing this sum correctly?

• Do not overwrite the paper.

• Pushpa had paid her electricity bill.

• The Bhatia coaching institute will take the entrance test on Monday.

• Put the research paper on the table.

• Pranavi should take this test.

• Has the sibling bothered Janvi?

• Aisha, along with her father, planted trees.

• Kartik loves love poetry.

• You take this parcel.

• Do you know the phone number of Komal? 

See Also: English grammar mcqs with answers pdf