Active/ Passive — Activity

Picture the notice board outside your college office: ‘Fees must be paid by the 10th.’ Nobody signs it, nobody is named, and yet everyone knows what is expected. Now compare the WhatsApp message from your class representative: ‘Ma’am has cancelled tomorrow’s lecture.’ One sentence hides the doer; the other puts the doer first. This topic teaches you to move a sentence between those two shapes without breaking its tense or its meaning — and to know which shape a lawyer should choose.

In two minutes

In the active voice the subject does the action; in the passive voice the receiver of the action becomes the subject, the verb becomes a form of ‘be’ plus the past participle in the same tense, and the doer moves behind ‘by’ or disappears.

The rest of this chapter

The full explanation, the cheat sheet, every previous-year question at every mark weight, the quiz and the answer skeletons are part of English – I on LexBlox Semester. Sign in to unlock the subject, or read Module 1 of Legal Language and Writing free.