Active and passive voice is an important grammar topic for Class 10 English examinations. It tests whether students can recognise the subject, verb, and object in a sentence and change their positions without changing the meaning. A clear understanding of voice also improves essays, comprehension answers, translations, and everyday writing.
In the active voice, the subject performs an action. In the passive voice, the subject receives the action. For example, “The student solved the numerical” is active, while “The numerical was solved by the student” is passive. Both sentences communicate the same event, but their focus is different.
Pakistani students preparing for board examinations can use reliable revision material, model answers, and grammar exercises from exam notes. Students living in Australia can apply the same rules to school assignments, exam responses, emails, and practical situations in cities such as Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, and Perth.
Australian English commonly uses spellings such as “organise” and “recognise”, while the grammar of active and passive voice remains the same. Whether a learner is revising after school, travelling on a train, or studying at a public library, short daily practice can make sentence transformation faster and more accurate.
A sentence is active when its subject carries out the action. The basic pattern is subject + verb + object. In “The scientist conducted the experiment”, “the scientist” is the subject, “conducted” is the verb, and “the experiment” is the object. The subject is clearly responsible for the action.
A passive sentence changes the focus to the receiver of the action. Its usual pattern is object + form of “be” + past participle + by + subject. The example becomes “The experiment was conducted by the scientist.” The object from the active sentence becomes the subject of the passive sentence.
The word “by” is sometimes unnecessary. “The thief was arrested by the police” identifies the agent, but “The thief was arrested” is sufficient when the police are obvious or unimportant. Passive voice is especially useful when the action matters more than the person performing it.
Students should first underline the subject, circle the main verb, and identify the object. If there is no object, a normal active-to-passive transformation may not be possible. For instance, “The baby slept” cannot normally be changed into a standard passive sentence because “slept” has no object.
The tense must remain unchanged during transformation. In the present simple, use “is”, “am”, or “are” plus the past participle. “The teacher checks the homework” becomes “The homework is checked by the teacher.” “The workers repair the road” becomes “The road is repaired by the workers.”
For the past simple, use “was” or “were” with the past participle. “The chef prepared the meal” changes to “The meal was prepared by the chef.” In the future simple, use “will be” plus the past participle: “The council will open the library” becomes “The library will be opened by the council.”
Continuous and perfect tenses require extra care. “The students are writing an essay” becomes “An essay is being written by the students.” “The engineers have completed the bridge” becomes “The bridge has been completed by the engineers.” The auxiliary verbs carry the tense, while the main verb changes to its past participle form.
A useful revision method is to memorise the passive structures: present continuous uses “is being done”, past continuous uses “was being done”, present perfect uses “has been done”, and past perfect uses “had been done”. Check whether the new subject is singular or plural before selecting “is”, “are”, “was”, or “were”.
Interrogative sentences can also be changed into the passive voice. “Did the manager approve the plan?” becomes “Was the plan approved by the manager?” The auxiliary “did” disappears because the past tense is shown by “was” and the past participle “approved”.
For present simple questions, “Does the company sell these products?” changes to “Are these products sold by the company?” In a question beginning with “who”, the structure may change more noticeably: “Who wrote this poem?” can become “By whom was this poem written?” In modern everyday English, “Who was this poem written by?” is also common, but formal examinations usually prefer the first form.
Commands use “Let” followed by the object and “be” plus the past participle. “Clean the classroom” becomes “Let the classroom be cleaned.” “Do not waste water” becomes “Let water not be wasted.” Some commands sound more natural as “The classroom should be cleaned,” depending on the required examination pattern.
Modal verbs such as can, may, must, should, and might are followed by “be” and the past participle in passive sentences. “Students must obey the rules” becomes “The rules must be obeyed by students.” “The council should improve the footpath” becomes “The footpath should be improved by the council.”
Grammar becomes easier to remember when examples relate to familiar life. In Sydney, a student might write, “Passengers tap their Opal cards before travelling,” which changes to “Opal cards are tapped by passengers before travelling.” In Melbourne, “Commuters use their Myki cards” becomes “Myki cards are used by commuters.” These sentences show how everyday habits can illustrate the same rule.
Local markets provide useful examples of both voices. “Vendors display fresh produce at the weekend market” becomes “Fresh produce is displayed by vendors at the weekend market.” “Customers bought handmade soap in Brisbane” becomes “Handmade soap was bought by customers in Brisbane.” The passive sentence focuses on the products or the buying activity.
Australian legislation can also supply formal examples. “The Australian Consumer Law protects buyers” changes to “Buyers are protected by the Australian Consumer Law.” “The Privacy Act 1988 regulates the handling of personal information” becomes “The handling of personal information is regulated by the Privacy Act 1988.” These examples are useful because passive voice is common in official notices, rules, and reports.
Students may also see passive constructions in workplace safety instructions based on Australian Work Health and Safety requirements. “Workers must wear protective equipment” becomes “Protective equipment must be worn by workers.” For additional subject revision and background reading, students can review these algebra history notes, then practise identifying voice in each sentence.
The most common error is using the wrong past participle. “The letter was wrote” is incorrect; the correct form is “The letter was written.” Students should revise irregular forms such as eaten, taken, given, broken, spoken, chosen, and built. Regular verbs generally take “-ed”, but spelling must still be checked.
Another error is changing the tense while changing the voice. “The workers are painting the fence” must become “The fence is being painted by the workers”, not “The fence was painted by the workers.” The time of the action remains present continuous in both sentences.
Students also sometimes add “by” when it is not needed or use a passive form for an intransitive verb. “The baby cried” cannot become “The cry was cried by the baby.” Likewise, “The sun rose” has no direct object and should remain active. Careful attention to the verb prevents these mistakes.
For effective exam preparation, use the following routine:
A strong answer is grammatically accurate, neatly written, and faithful to the original meaning. In a Class 10 paper, students should avoid adding new information, changing singular nouns into plural nouns, or leaving out essential auxiliaries. Final checking is especially valuable when the sentence contains “has”, “have”, “was”, “were”, or a modal verb.
Active voice usually makes writing direct and energetic, while passive voice gives attention to an action, result, rule, or object. Both forms are correct when used for the right purpose. The key point to remember is simple: find the object, preserve the tense, use the past participle, and make the receiver of the action the new subject.