What is Voice – Active Voice & Passive Voice ? Why is voice needed?
While communicating we use words in a sentence according to the importance ascribed to them.
Or
In other words are placed in a sentence according to their importance in communication.
Usually a sentence has a subject, a verb and an object in it. A word is used as subject or object in a sentence according to the importance it carries with it.
Take the following examples to make it clear.
1. I wrote a letter to him.
2. I wrote him a letter.
3. A letter was written to him by me.
In these sentences the three key words I, letter and him are placed at different places in the sentences according to the importance of these words in communication. As such the two forms of voice i.e. Active and Passive voice are used accordingly while communicating. More important words are used as Subject and those of secondary place are used as an object in a sentence. For this necessary changes are made in the sentence.
The process of making a change from active to passive form of a sentence is called ‘change of the voice’.
INTERROGATIVE SENTENCES
Interrogative sentences starting with words like ‘Who’, ‘Whom’, ‘Which’ , ‘Why’ ,’What’ ,’Whose’ , ‘How’ ,’Whom or ‘Where’ etc.
First of all it is necessary to know about the words ‘who’ and ”whom’.
Difference between ‘Who’ and ‘Whom’ while making their use in a sentence :
Subject | Possessive Pronoun | Object |
I | My | Me |
We | Our | Us |
You | Your | You |
He | His | Him |
She | Her | Her |
They | Their | Them |
Similarly in case who and whom
Who | Whose | Whom |
So when we use a word in Subject place it is ‘who’ and using in place of object it is ‘whom’.
Following example makes it clear.
Active voice
In passive object moves to the beginning of the sentence and subject to the end of the sentence.
In Passive voice
For Example
Fill in the blank with a word out of given options :
1………………(who/whom) do you think will be elected captain?
2………………(who/whom) will the team elect captain?
To understand these sentences, think reply of these interrogative sentences in assertive form.i.e.
- I think……………..(he/him)will be elected captain.
- The team will elect……………(he/him) captain.
In the first sentence it is quite clear that subject form is required and out of the two options ‘he’ is the subject form. Out of who and whom ‘who’ is the word in subject place. So in interrogative sentence’who’ will be used.
- Who do you think will be elected captain. or in other way …………..( you think) will be elected captain? Find out whether in this sentence a subject or an object is required. It is clearly evident that a subject is required and it is ‘who’.
Similarly in the second sentence it is evident that a word at object place is required. Out of he and him ‘him’ and out of who and whom ‘whom’ are the words at object place.
2. Whom will the team elect captain? The team will elect him captain.
So the correct word is ‘Whom’.
ACTIVE AND PASSIVE VOICE
While changing a sentence into passive voice Who is changed to —- by whom
Sentences for practice
More Examples !
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