Watch the sentence change direction.
Passive voice moves the receiver of the action to the front while the meaning remains connected.
In the passive voice of the continuous present tense, we use the auxiliary verb am/is/are with being and the past participle (the third form of the verb).
Passive Voice of Continuous Present Tense – Formation
In this, we use the helping verb according to the subject, that is,
- If the subject of the passive voice is first person and singular number, that is ‘I’, the helping verb ‘am’ is used
- For the third-person singular subject, that is ‘he, she or it’, the helping verb ‘is’ is used
- If the subject is plural or second person, the helping verb ‘are’ is used.
In the passive voice of the continuous present tense – positive, negative, interrogative and negative interrogative – we use the past participle (third form) of the verb.
Keep in mind that we should arrange the sentence in the following form:
- Active sentence: subject + am/is/are + present participle (-ing form) of the verb + object
- Passive sentence: object of the active sentence + am / is / are + being + past participle (third form) of the verb + by + subject of the active sentence
Example of Continuous Present Tense – Transformation
Now we shall see an example of the passive voice of the present continuous tense.
Active: She is drawing a picture today. (drawing – present participle of draw)
The above sentence is in the form:
- Subject + is + present participle of ‘draw’ + object
Passive: A picture is being drawn by her today. (drawn-past participle of draw)
The passive voice of this sentence is in the form:
- Object in active + is + being + past participle of ‘draw’ + by + subject in active + remaining words.
In the above sentence, we can see the changes that occur when transforming from active to passive voice as follows:
- The object of the active form (picture) became the subject.
- Subject ‘she’ became the object: ‘her’.
- The form of ‘to be’ (is) and ‘being’ is added
- The past participle of the verb ‘draw’, which is ‘drawn‘, is taken.
More Examples
All of these are affirmative sentences.
Active: They are watching a movie.
- Passive: A movie is being watched by them.
Active: A mason is building a wall.
- Passive: A wall is being built by a mason.
Active: A teacher is delivering a lecture.
- Passive: A lecture is being delivered by a teacher.
Active: The students are obeying orders of their physical trainer.
- Passive: Orders of their physical trainer are being obeyed by the students.
You may also like the passive voice of the tenses
- Simple Present
- Perfect present
- Simple Past
- Past Continuous
- Perfect past
- Simple Future
- Future Perfect
▦ All Lessons of Grammar