Active–Passive Voice and Narration: Rules With Examples
Clear tables for changing tenses in the passive voice and in indirect speech, plus the rules for questions, commands, exclamations and universal truths.
By the World MCQ Forum India Editorial Team · 27 October 2026 · 3 min read
Voice and narration questions appear in SSC CGL, CHSL and MTS English papers almost every year. Both follow fixed patterns. Learn the two tables below and the special cases, and you can answer most questions in seconds.
Part 1: Active to passive voice
In the passive, the object becomes the subject, the verb becomes be + past participle, and the doer (if mentioned) comes after by.
| Tense | Active | Passive |
|---|---|---|
| Simple present | She writes a letter. | A letter is written by her. |
| Present continuous | They are building a hospital. | A hospital is being built by them. |
| Present perfect | The police have arrested the thief. | The thief has been arrested by the police. |
| Simple past | Somebody stole my bag. | My bag was stolen. |
| Past continuous | The cat was chasing the mouse. | The mouse was being chased by the cat. |
| Simple future | He will finish the work. | The work will be finished by him. |
| Modals | One should keep promises. | Promises should be kept. |
Memory tip: continuous tenses add being, perfect tenses add been.
Special cases
- Questions: Who broke the window? → By whom was the window broken? Keep the question order.
- Commands: Do not insult the poor. → Let the poor not be insulted.
- Unknown or general doers (people, someone, they) are usually dropped: English is spoken all over the world.
- Intransitive verbs (sleep, go, arrive) have no object, so they have no passive.
Part 2: Direct to indirect speech
When the reporting verb is in the past (said, asked), the tense inside the quotation moves one step back:
| Direct | Indirect |
|---|---|
| am / is → | was |
| are → | were |
| has / have → | had |
| simple past (saw) → | past perfect (had seen) |
| will → | would |
| can → | could |
| may → | might |
Words of time and place also change:
| Direct | Indirect |
|---|---|
| now | then |
| today | that day |
| yesterday | the previous day / the day before |
| tomorrow | the next day / the following day |
| this / these | that / those |
| here | there |
The reporting verb changes with the type of sentence
| Type | Use | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Statement | said / told + that | She said that she was tired. |
| Wh-question | asked + wh-word, statement order | He asked me where I lived. |
| Yes/no question | asked + if / whether | He asked her if she was coming. |
| Request | requested + to | Ram requested Shyam to help him. |
| Order / advice | ordered / advised / told + to | Mother told me not to play in the sun. |
| Exclamation | exclaimed (with joy, sorrow …) | She exclaimed that the garden was very beautiful. |
When the tense does NOT change
- Universal truths and facts: The teacher said that the earth revolves around the sun.
- When the reporting verb is in the present or future: He says that he is busy.
Common traps in the options
- Keeping the question order in indirect speech: ✗ He asked me where did I live.
- Using “that” with questions: ✗ He asked that where I lived.
- Forgetting to change pronouns: I → he/she, we → they, my → his/her.
- Using “said to” in indirect speech: write told me, not ✗ said me.
Practise both topics in our voice and narration set, where each answer names the rule it uses.