Voice and Narration

1. Eligibility: Find the Receiver

Ask what? or whom? after the action verb. The storm damaged what? — the roof. So The roof was damaged by the storm is possible. In Riya slept peacefully, there is no object; peacefully only tells us how.

2. Core Formula

Active: \(S+V+O\). Passive: \(O+\text{correct form of BE}+V_3+(\text{by }S)\).

• The clerk checks the form. → The form is checked by the clerk.
• The clerk checked the form. → The form was checked by the clerk.
• The clerk will check the form. → The form will be checked.

3. Aspect Fingerprints

• Continuous active → being + V3: is teaching → is being taught.
• Perfect active → been + V3: has taught → has been taught.
• Modal active → modal + be + V3: must submit → must be submitted.

Very long passives such as will have been being repaired are grammatically possible but clumsy and normally avoided. Traditional exam books often label four long aspects “no passive”; treat that as an exam preference, not a law of English.

4. Agent, Instrument and Omission

By normally introduces the doer: The window was broken by a pupil. With can introduce an instrument or material: The window was broken with a stone. Omit the agent when it is unknown, obvious or unimportant: The results were announced.

Some participles have their own normal complements: known to me, filled with water, interested in music. Do not replace every preposition with by.

5. Phrasal Verbs Stay Together

The preposition or particle is part of the verb unit. Keep it in the passive:

• They looked after the child. → The child was looked after.
• A car ran over the dog. → The dog was run over by a car.
• Everyone laughed at the excuse. → The excuse was laughed at.

6. Two Objects, Two Passives

The principal gave Riya a prize.

• Riya was given a prize.
• A prize was given to Riya.

Both are grammatical. Use to or for when the thing becomes subject, as the original verb requires. There is no universal rule that the living object must always be preferred.

Do not confuse an object complement: They elected Riya captain → Riya was elected captain; captain renames Riya and cannot become the subject.

7. Questions Remain Questions

Keep auxiliary–subject inversion in a passive question:

• Did they submit the form? → Was the form submitted?
• Who wrote the letter? → By whom was the letter written?

Who was the letter written by? is also standard, though the formal form is more common in exams.

8. Imperatives: Match the Force

• Neutral order: Close the gate. → Let the gate be closed. (traditional formula)
• Advice/duty: Help the poor. → The poor should be helped.
• Polite request: Please wait. → You are requested to wait.

If the command has no object, the ordinary Let + object + be + V3 formula cannot work.

9. Non-finites and Causatives

• Infinitive: \(\text{to}+V_1\rightarrow\text{to be}+V_3\).
• Gerund: \(V_{ing}\rightarrow\text{being}+V_3\).
• She dislikes people ignoring her. → She dislikes being ignored.
• The teacher made him apologise. → He was made to apologise.

Have/get something done is already a causative passive pattern: I had the printer repaired.

10. Reporting and Get-Passives

People say that he is honest has two useful passives:

• It is said that he is honest.
• He is said to be honest.

Get + V3 is an informal event passive, often suggesting change, accident or involvement: He got injured. Use be-passives in neutral formal answers unless the original meaning clearly favours get.

11. Start with the Reporting Verb

If the reporting verb is present or future, do not backshift simply because the sentence becomes indirect: He says, “I am tired.” → He says that he is tired.

After a past reporting verb, backshift is usual when the report looks back from a later time: He said, “I am tired.” → He said that he was tired.

12. Pronouns Follow People, Not a Chant

The school shortcut 1–S, 2–O, 3–N can help: first person follows the original speaker; second person follows the listener; third person often stays. But identify the real people first.

Riya said to Mohan, “I like your plan.” → Riya told Mohan that she liked his plan.

If no listener is stated, do not invent one blindly. Use the meaning and options.

13. Backshift Ladder

• simple present → simple past
• present continuous → past continuous
• present perfect → past perfect
• simple past → past perfect
• past perfect → usually no further change

Backshift shows an earlier viewpoint; it is not a punishment applied to every verb.

14. Modal Changes Depend on Meaning

• will → would, can → could, may → might when a real backshift is needed.
• must → had to for a past obligation: “I must leave” → he said he had to leave.
• must may stay for deduction, lasting rule or necessity: she said we must obey the law.
• could, might, should, would, ought to often remain unchanged.

15. Time and Place Are Contextual

Now → then, today → that day, tomorrow → the next day, yesterday → the day before, here → there, this → that are common when the report moves away in time or place.

But if the report is made on the same day or in the same place, the original word can stay: He said this morning that he would leave today.

16. Said, Told and Reporting Verbs

• said + that-clause: He said that he was ready.
• said to + person often becomes told + person: He told me that...
• Told needs an object. Never write He told that...

Questions use asked/inquired; orders use ordered; requests use requested; advice uses advised. Choose a reporting verb that matches the original force.

17. Reported Questions Flatten

• Yes/no: She asked, “Are you ready?” → She asked whether/if I was ready.
• Wh-question: He asked, “Where do you live?” → He asked where I lived.

Use statement order, not question order. Do not add that before a wh-word. The reported clause itself has no question mark, though the whole sentence may: Did she ask whether I was ready?

18. Commands and Requests

Use a reporting verb + object + infinitive:

• The teacher said, “Sit down.” → The teacher told us to sit down.
• She said, “Please help me.” → She requested me to help her.
• He said, “Do not touch it.” → He warned me not to touch it.

With forbade, do not add another negative: He forbade me to enter, not forbade me not to enter.

19. Suggestions and “Let”

• “Let us leave.” → He suggested leaving / He suggested that we (should) leave.
• Never write suggested me to leave.
• “Let me go.” can become He requested that he be allowed to go, depending on context.
• “What shall I do?” may report as He asked what he should do.

20. Exclamations, Wishes and Prayers

• “Hurrah! We won!” → They exclaimed with joy that they had won.
• “Alas! I failed!” → He exclaimed with sorrow that he had failed.
• “What a beautiful view!” → She exclaimed that it was a very beautiful view.
• “May you succeed!” → She wished that I might succeed.

The reporting phrase absorbs the interjection; do not carry alas/hurrah/oh into the reported clause.

21. Conditionals Keep Their Logic

A third conditional is already anchored in an unreal past, so its verb pattern normally stays:

He said, “If I had known, I would have helped.” → He said that if he had known, he would have helped.

Do not mechanically backshift every conditional. First identify whether it expresses a real possibility, general truth, hypothetical present or unreal past.

22. Punctuation and Clause Link

Quotation marks and the reporting comma disappear. Statements commonly use that; yes/no questions use if/whether; wh-questions keep the wh-word; commands use an infinitive.

A reported question inside a statement ends with a full stop. But if the whole reporting sentence is a question, keep the question mark: Did he ask where I lived?