1. Everyone in the village liked Rip Van Winkle.


2. Rip Van Winkle was liked by everyone in the village.

Compare the two sentences. They convey the same message. In the first sentence , ‘Everyone in the village’is the subject /agent, ‘liked’is the verb, and ‘Rip Van Winkle’ is the object. Here, the verb ‘liked’ is said to be in ‘active voice.’

In the second sentence, the subject and the object have exchanged their positions and “by” is added to the agent. The verb “liked” is changed into “was liked” (be + past participle of the verb). Here, the verb is said to be in passive voice.

The tense of the verb does not change when we transform a sentence in active voice into passive voice or vice versa. (Observe the above examples and the ones given below.)

eg. John paints portraits.           Portraits are painted by John.

Umesh is planting a tree.           A tree is being planted by Umesh.

eg. I taught Ravi English.
English was taught to Ravi by me. / Ravi was taught English by me.

We watched a film and returned home late yesterday. We unlocked the door and entered our apartment. We were shocked to find the whole place in disarray. Clothes were thrown everywhere. The cupboard was opened and my three new suits were missing. The handle of the iron safe was broken. We were surprised at how anyone could have got in when the door was locked. My wife found that the backdoor was left open. Evidently we had forgotten to close it when we left the house. An inventory of the missing property was prepared and a complaint was lodged with the Town Police Station. My wife and I were taught the lesson of our life.