he kept bring us waiting. (change voice)
Answers
we were kept waiting by him
Question:-
he kept bring us waiting.
Answer:
We were kept waiting by him .
Define :-
Active voice: Subject + Verb + Object
Passive voice: Object + Verb + Subject
You must have seen that the verb form changes when you switch from active to passive voice. Now verbs used are of two kinds: the main and the auxiliary verbs. Usually, an auxiliary verb is accompanied by the main verb. The auxiliary verb like be, do or have shows the tense or mood of the verb. For example, in the sentence “I have finished my scuba diving course in the Havelock Islands”, finished is the main verb and have is the auxiliary verb.
As a thumb rule, Passive voice sentences always take the third form of the verb also called the past participle form of the verb (example- eat, ate, eaten- eaten is the third form of a verb). Notice this being used in the sentence above in the table: “The strawberry pie was eaten by me.”
So the usage of the main verb is pretty simple to convert. It’s the auxiliary verb that we need to understand further. Let’s get into it:
Rules for changing Active voice to Passive voice:
Simply exchange the places of the subject and the object. The subject should become the object and vice-e-versa while changing a sentence from Active to Passive voice or reverse.
Active voice: She bought a new car. (She is the subject and a new car is an object.)
Passive voice: A new car was bought by her. (A new car is a subject and her is the object.)
Learn more about Active Voice and Passive Voice here in detail.
2. Always blindly convert the main verb into its past participle or third form while converting from active to passive voice.
Active voice: Bhaanu wrote a book on gun violence.
Passive voice: A book on gun violence was written by Bhaanu.
3. Use the word “by” before the subject in the passive sentence. For example:
Active voice: My brother sang a song.
Passive voice: A song was sung by my brother.
4. Change of tense of the auxiliary word: Now when you change the verb form of the main verb, the tense of the auxiliary also changes accordingly. Let’s see this with the help of a few examples:
Present tense–
Active voice: Sun rises from the east.
Passive voice: East is where the sun rises from.
Past tense–
Active voice: She walked my dog home.
Passive voice: My dog was walked home by her.
Future tense–
Active voice: Sheena will do the craft work.
Passive voice: Craft work will be done by Sheena.
5. Sometimes you may completely omit the subject from the passive voice if the idea you are trying to convey is clear. You just have to take a judgement call for that. For example:
Active voice: Distance is measured in kilometers.
Passive voice: Kilometres is a measurement unit for distance.
6. Words like “with” or “to” are also used in passive voice. You may recall that we use “by” quite frequently in an active voice to passive voice conversion.
Active voice: I know her.
Passive voice: She is known to me.
Active voice: Love fills my heart.
Passive voice: My heart is filled with love.
Now test yourself by solving these Problems and Practice Questions on Active and Passive Voice.
That pretty much sums up our chapter of Active and Passive voice. We recommend you pick up a few sentences below, identify whether they are in active or passive voice and convert them to the other form.