Page 132 - New Grammar with a Smile 8

Active and

19 Passive Voice

Warm-up

Read what these people are saying. Identify the highlighted verbs as finite or
non-finite.

Oh really? I had

Shashi played to complete My neighbours That was nice
the guitar at the my report, so I left for Dimapur. of you. Did they
party. couldn’t attend. I gave them a take all their
farewell gift. stuff?

Now, let us read the words spoken by the people once more.

Speaker 1: Shashi played the guitar at the party.

Speaker 2: I had to complete my report, so I couldn’t attend.

Speaker 3: My neighbours left for Dimapur. I gave them a farewell gift.

Speaker 4: That was nice of you. Did they take all their stuff?

Let us try to change the voice of the verbs in these sentences.

1. In the first speaker’s conversation, the subject is ‘Shashi’ (doer of the action),
and the direct object of the verb played is ‘guitar’. The verb is a transitive verb.
Therefore, it can be changed as shown here:

• The guitar was played by Shashi at the party. (passive)

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