Passive Voice

You have already learned that a verb is in the active voice if the subject of the sentence performs the action. When the object of a verb in the active voice becomes the subject of the sentence, the verb is then transformed to passive voice.

Example:

Active voice

Rama killed Ravana.

In the foregoing sentence, the subject or doer of the transitive verb is Rama, and the object is Ravana.

Example:

Passive voice

Ravana was killed by Rama.

In the sentence above, the positions of the subject and object are switched. Ravana now becomes the subject of the intransitive verb was killed, and Rama now becomes the object of the preposition by.

The passive voice of the verb is formed by combining a form of the verb to be with the past participle form of the main verb.

Example:

1. The world was created by God.
2. No suitable companion had been found for Adam.

In the passive voice, the doer of the action is usually introduced through a prepositional phrase that usually begins with by. However, it may not always be indicated as demonstrated in sentence number 2.