Passive Voice

The passive voice is a grammatical construction (a "voice") in which the subject of a sentence or clause denotes the recipient of the action (the patient) rather than the performer (the agent). In the English language, the English passive voice is formed with an auxiliary verb (usually be or get) plus a participle (usually the past participle) of a transitive verb. For example, "Caesar was stabbed by Brutus" uses the passive voice. The subject denotes the person (Caesar) affected by the action of the verb. The counterpart to this in active voice is, "Brutus stabbed Caesar", in which the subject denotes the doer, or agent, Brutus. A sentence featuring the passive voice is sometimes called a passive sentence, and a verb phrase in passive voice is sometimes called a passive verb.[1] English differs from languages in which voice is indicated through a simple inflection, since the English passive is periphrastic, composed of an auxiliary verb plus the past participle of the transitive verb. Use of the English passive varies with writing style and field. Some style sheets discourage use of passive voice,[2] while others encourage it.[3] Although some purveyors of usage advice, including George Orwell (see Politics and the English Language, 1946) and William Strunk, Jr. and E. B. White (see The Elements of Style, 1919) discourage the English passive, its usefulness is recognized in cases where the theme (receiver of the action) is more important than the agent.[4]

Tense		Subject	Verb	Object
Simple Present	Active:	Sandy	writes	a letter.
	Passive:	A letter	is written	by Sandy.
Simple Past	Active:	Sandy	wrote	a letter.
	Passive:	A letter	was written	by Sandy.
Present Perfect	Active :	Sandy	has written	a letter.
	Passive:	A letter	has been written	by Sandy.
Future I	Active:	Sandy	will write	a letter.
	Passive:	A letter	will be written	by Sandy.
Hilfsverben	Active:	Sandy	can write	a letter.
	Passive:	A letter	can be written	by Sandy.

Examples of Passive

Tense		Subject	Verb	Object
Present Progressive	Active:	Sandy	is writing	a letter.
	Passive:	A letter	is being written	by Sandy.
Past Progressive	Active:	Sandy	was writing	a letter.
	Passive:	A letter	was being written	by Sandy.
Past Perfect	Active:	Sandy	had written	a letter.
	Passive:	A letter	had been written	by Sandy.
Future II	Active:	Sandy	will have written	a letter.
	Passive:	A letter	will have been written	by Sandy.
Conditional I	Active:	Sandy	would write	a letter.
	Passive:	A letter	would be written	by Sandy.
Conditional II	Active:	Sandy	would have written	a letter.
	Passive:	A letter	would have been written	by Sandy.

Passive Sentences with Two Objects

Rewriting an active sentence with two objects in passive voice means that one of the two objects becomes the subject, the other one remains an object. Which object to transform into a subject depends on what you want to put the focus on.

	Subject	Verb	Object 1	Object 2
Sandy		wrote	a letter	to me.
Passive:	A letter	was written	to me	by Sandy.
Passive:	I	was written	a letter	by Sandy.					Refernces : http://swarabhaskara.com/miscellaneous/active-and-passive-voice/ http://www.englisch-hilfen.de/en/exercises_list/passiv.htm http://www.ego4u.com/en/cram-up/grammar/passive http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_passive_voice