Passive Voice in Simple Present Tense: Explained with Ease
Original EnglishLamp lesson with a visual learning surface.
VISUAL EXPLAINER · ACTIVE AND PASSIVE VOICE
Keep the action. Change the focus.
Active and passive voice can describe the same event while giving different prominence to the doer or the receiver of the action.
01 · ACTIVE FOCUS
Begin with who does the action.
In an active sentence, the subject typically performs the action. This is often the most direct way to describe an event.
EXAMPLERiya writes the letter.
02 · FIND THE OBJECT
Identify what receives the action.
When the verb takes an object, that object can often become the subject of a passive sentence.
EXAMPLEThe letter …
03 · BUILD THE PASSIVE
Use be plus the past participle.
Choose the form of be that matches the tense and the new subject, then use the past participle of the main verb.
EXAMPLEThe letter is written.
04 · KEEP THE AGENT IF NEEDED
Add the doer only when useful.
A by-phrase can name the agent, but it is often omitted when the doer is unknown, obvious or less important than the result.
EXAMPLEThe letter is written by Riya.
05 · CHECK THE MEANING
Preserve the tense and the event.
The focus changes, but the event should remain the same. Check the form of be, the participle and agreement with the new subject.
EXAMPLEActive: Riya wrote the letter. Passive: The letter was written by Riya.
Continue below for the full EnglishLamp lesson, its original examples and reference material.
Original EnglishLamp lesson•Reference learning mode
In passive voice of simple present tense of affirmative sentence, we use auxiliary verb am /is / are with past participle that is third form of verb. In this topic, we shall discuss the formation and changing active to passive voice of simple present tense.
Passive Voice of Simple Present Tense- Formation
In this, we use helping verb according to the subject that is-
if subject of passive voice is first person and singular number that is ‘I’, we use helping verb ‘am’.
for subject of third person and singular number that is ‘he, she or it’, helping verb ‘is’ is used
if subject is plural or second person, we use helping verb ‘are’.
In passive voice of simple present tense– positive, negative, interrogative and negative interrogative, we use past participle (third form) of verb.
Keep in mind that we should arrange the sentence in the following form-
Active sentence- subject + am / is/ are/base form of verb + object
Passive sentence- object of the active sentence + am / is / are + past participle ( third form ) of the verb + by + subject of the active sentence
Example of Simple Present Tense- Transformation
Now we shall take an example of simple present tense and transform it into passive voice.
Have a look–
Active: She draws a picture today. (draw – base form)
For this, first you should learn the formation of simple present tense.
Above sentence is in the form-
Subject + verb (base form) + object + remaining word
Passive: A picture is drawn by her today. (drawn- past participle of draw)
