Page 28 - DENG201_ENGLISH_II

English - II

Notes Examples:
Present : He has been doing the work.
(No change of voice)
Past : He had been doing the work.
(No change of voice)
Future : He will have been doing the work.
(No change of voice)
Future Continuous : He will be doint the work.
(No change of voice)
The reason is that if the change of voice is done in these tenses, then the verb is to be used twice which
is wrong.
Example:
He has been doing the work. (Active)
The work has been being done by him.
This is a wrong sentence as the verb is used twice. Similar is the case with the other sentences.
Let us look at some more examples of active and passive voice.
Active Passive
Mohan has burnt the shop. The stop has been burnt by Mohan.
People speak English all over the world. English is spoken all over the world.
They built the bridge last year. The bridge was built last year.
The boy beat the child. The child was beaten by the boy.
From the above examples, it is clear that we use active voice when we are more interested in the doer
or agent. And we use passive voice when we are more interested in the object of the action.
As you will notice above, most passive voice sentences drop the agent or the doer either because it is
not known or because it is understood and hence not needed or also because it is not important.
In order to convert active voice into passive voice, certain rules need be observed.
1. First of all, the arrangement of the worlds in a sentence in the active voice is changed.
Active Voice: Subject + Verb + Object
Mohan read a book.
Passive Voice: Object + helping verb + main verb + by + subject
A book was read by Mohan
Thus, the subject of the active voice becomes the object of the passive voice.
2. Change of Pronoun
(i) When he as subject of active voice becomes object of the passive voice, it changes into
him. Similarly.
(ii) She becomes her
(iii) We becomes us
(iv) They becomes them
(v) I becomes me
3. Change required under each tense
(i) Present Tense
(a) Present Indefinite: Assertive sentence
Here, we need to change the first form of the verb into the third form and add is/am/
are before it, depending on the number and person of the subject in the active voice.

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