Active and Passive Voice of Simple Past Tense

We have already talked about active and passive voice of present tenses: simple present, present continuous, present perfect and present perfect continuous tense. In the article below we are going to elaborate active and passive voice of simple past tense. All structure for affirmative, interrogative, negative and negative interrogative sentences are given with examples to be useful for ESL learners. In addition, click Active and Passive Voice Complete Rules, you might find this useful too.

Active and Passive Voice of Simple Past Tense

Affirmatives

• Active: S + V2 + object + ROTS
  Rahat Fateh Ali sang a beautiful song last year.
• Passive: S + was/were + V3 + prep + object + ROTS
  A beautiful song was sung by Rahat Fateh Ali last year.

Interrogatives

• Active: Did + S + V1 + object + ROTS
  Did you buy a grammar book last week?
• Passive: Was/Were + S + V3 + prep + object + ROTS
  Was a grammar book bought by you last week?

Negatives

• Active: S + did + not + V1 + object + ROTS
  They did not/didn’t invite us to the party.
• Passive: S + was/were + not + V3 + prep + object + ROTS
  We were not invited by them to the party.

Negative interrogatives

• Active: Did not + S + V1 + object + ROTS
  Didn`t they invite you to the party?
• Passive: Was/Were not + S + V3 + prep + object + ROTS
  Weren`t you invited by them to the party?

WH/Information questions

• Active: WH + did + S + V1 + object + ROTS
  When did you watch that movie?
• Passive: WH + was/were + subject + V3 + prep + object + ROTS
  When was that movie watched by you?

More Sentences:

Affirmative:

• Active: They won the match yesterday
• Passive: The match was won by them yesterday.

Negative:

• Active: They didn’t win the match yesterday.
• Passive: The match was not won by them yesterday.

Interrogative:

• Active: Did they win the match yesterday?
• Passive: Was the match won by them yesterday?

Negative interrogative:

• Active: Didn’t they win the match yesterday?
• Passive: Wasn’t the match won by them yesterday?

Attempt Active and Passive Voice Exercise

Conclusion:

Would you like to know more about active and passive voice? Check out the useful book below: