Formation of Passive Voice -Simple Past Tense
In the passive voice of simple past tense like any other passives, an object becomes subject. An auxiliary verb is used according to the number of objects because here object becomes the subject of the sentence. Action is done on the object in the past time. To interchange active voice into passive voice in the simple past tense, the form of ‘to be’ that is, was, or were is used with the past participle of a verb used in a sentence.
It means the formation of the simple past tense in-
- an affirmative sentence is –
object + was / were + past participle of verb + by + subject
- question sentence is –
was / were + object + past participle of verb + by + subject
Examples of passive voice in the simple past tense
We shall take an example for better understanding-
- Active voice- I saw a beautiful girl.
In the above sentence- ‘I’ is subject, ‘saw’ is a verb of the sentence and ‘a beautiful girl’ is object.
Now we have to change this sentence into a passive voice but keep in mind that we should not change the tense that is simple past tense.
According to the formation given above, we can write:
Example with Three Persons
Let’s take an example with three persons of singular as well as plural number. Have a look-
1st person - I Active Voice I finished the work.
Passive Voice The work was finished by me.
We Active Voice We finished the work.
Passive Voice The work was finished by us.
2nd person - You Active Voice You finished the work.
Passive Voice The work was finished by you.
You Active Voice You finished the work.
Passive Voice The work was finished by you.
3rd person -He Active Voice He finished the work.
Passive Voice The work was finished by him.
She Active Voice She finished the work.
Passive Voice The work was finished by her.
They Active Voice They finished the work.
Passive Voice The work was finished by them.
Go over: Passive voice- Related links you may like
| Simple Present Tense |
| Past Simple Tense |
| Simple Future Tense |
| Continuous Present Tense |
| Past Continuous Tense |
| Perfect Present Tense |
| Past Perfect Tense |
| Perfect Future Tense |
