Learn free online English grammar through Kannada: General English grammar in Kannada.

Level - II

Lesson - 9

Active / Passive Verb Forms
There are two special forms for verbs called voice:
1. Active voice
2. Passive voice
We must learn to recognize the difference to successfully speak English.
Active Form
sentence is said to be in Active Voice when the subject does something.. Most sentences are active.
[Thing doing action] + [verb] + [thing receiving action]
Active subject verb object
Cats eat fish.
Passive Active Form
Passive voice is used when the focus is on the action. It is not important that who or what is performing the action.
Passive subject verb object
Fish are eaten by cats.
In the example above, the focus is on the fact that Fish was eaten.
When rewriting active sentences in passive voice, note the following:
a. The object of the active sentence becomes the subject of the passive sentence
b. The finite form of the verb is changed (to be + past participle)
c. The subject of the active sentence becomes the object of the passive sentence (or is dropped)

Please remember these following rules and tables:
Given tenses cannot be changed into passive voice:
1.Present perfect continuous tense. 2.Past perfect continuous tense. 3.Future continuous tense.
4.Future perfect continuous tense. 5.Sentence having Intransitive verbs.

Simple example of Active to passive voice.

A famous story "Who would tie the bell around Cat's neck?"


There was a grocery shop in a city. Plenty of mice lived in that grocery shop. Food was in plenty for them. They ate everything and spoiled all the bags of the material. They also wasted the cheese, bread, biscuits and fruits of the shop.
The grocer got really worried and he started searching the solution of this problem. He got an idea "I should buy a cat and let it stay at the grocery. Only then I can save my things."
He bought a nice, big fat cat and let him stay there. The cat had a nice time hunting the mice and killing them in the shop. The mice could not move freely now. They were afraid that anytime the cat would eat them up.
The mice wanted to do something. One smart mouse invited to all mice. They held a meeting and all of them tweeted "We must get rid of the cat. Can someone give a suggestion?"
All the mice sat and brooded. A smart looking mouse stood up and said, "The cat moves softly. If we can tie a bell around her neck, then things will be fine. We can know the movements of the cat".
“Yes, that is nice answer,” stated all the mice. An old mouse slowly stood up and asked to all his friends,
"Who would tie the bell?"
After some moments there was no one there to answer this question.

Please see the below cartoon and write a story in English.

Practice -

1. Make a story on any topic then write it with correct spellings.
2. Record the same story by a voice recorder and listen it. Try to find out the mistakes and correct them.
3. To get the self confidence, speak in English in front of mirror.
4. Watch English channels like NEWS, Cartoon or Film and speak along with watching TV.
5. Make a list of new words and take help of dictionary.
6. Daily read English news paper and Speak while reading.

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