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Year 6

Using the active and passive voice

I can convert sentences between the active and passive voice.

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New
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Year 6

Using the active and passive voice

I can convert sentences between the active and passive voice.

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Share activities with pupils
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Lesson details

Key learning points

  1. There are different tenses and ways of forming verbs in English.
  2. In the passive voice, the verb is 'done to' the subject.
  3. The passive voice allows the speaker or writer to sound more detached from the sentence content than the active voice.
  4. The active voice is the most frequently heard, spoken and written voice in English.
  5. A clause in the passive voice contains two verbs: an auxiliary verb from the infinitive 'to be' and the past participle.

Keywords

  • Subject - the noun, noun phrase or pronoun that does or is the main verb in the active voice

  • Object - the noun, noun phrase or pronoun that receives the action of the main verb in the active voice

  • Verb - a being, a doing or a having word

  • Active voice - a spoken or written voice in which the subject does the verb in a sentence

  • Passive voice - a spoken or written voice in which the subject is acted upon by the verb

Common misconception

Pupils may struggle to maintain the correct tense when converting between active and passive.

Encourage pupils to consider the different tense options and find the one that sounds best.


To help you plan your year 6 english lesson on: Using the active and passive voice, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...

Encourage pupils throughout to think of passive sentences as versions of active sentences. The active is the 'normal' sentence structure with the verb 'done by' the subject; the passive is a deviation from this.
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This content is © Oak National Academy Limited (2025), licensed on Open Government Licence version 3.0 except where otherwise stated. See Oak's terms & conditions (Collection 2).

Lesson video

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Starter quiz

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6 Questions

Q1.
Which word is the subject in this sentence? 'Aisha slammed the door loudly.'
the door
Correct answer: Aisha
loudly
slammed
Q2.
Which word in this sentence is the object? 'The stars lit up the sky at night.'
The stars
lit up
Correct answer: the sky
at night
Q3.
Tick the sentences that have an object.
She was drawing earlier.
Correct answer: She was drawing me.
She was drawing a lot.
Correct answer: She was drawing a picture.
Q4.
How do we know this sentence is in the passive voice? 'The photo was taken by Sam.'
Correct answer: It contains the preposition 'by'.
Correct answer: The verb is 'done to' the subject.
The subject is doing the verb.
Correct answer: It includes an auxiliary verb from 'to be' along with a past tense main verb.
Q5.
Tick all the passive voice sentences.
The thieves took some plants.
Correct answer: Some plants were taken by the thieves.
Correct answer: We were surprised by the noise.
The noise surprised us.
Q6.
Which is the correct passive voice version of this active sentence? 'Lightning struck the lighthouse.'
Lightning was struck by the lighthouse.
Correct answer: The lighthouse was struck by lightning.
The lighthouse was being struck by lightning.
The lighthouse is being struck by lightning.

Exit quiz

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6 Questions

Q1.
Identify the subject, verb and object in this active voice sentence: 'The elderly man withdrew some money from the bank.'
Correct Answer:subject,the elderly man
tick

the elderly man

Correct Answer:verb,withdrew
tick

withdrew

Correct Answer:object,some money
tick

some money

Q2.
What do we need to do to change an active sentence to a passive one?
Correct answer: make the old object the subject of the new sentence
Correct answer: use the preposition 'by'
Correct answer: use an auxiliary verb based on 'to be' and a past tense main verb
remove the object
Q3.
Why might we convert an active sentence to the passive?
to emphasise who did the action
to emphasise how the action was done
Correct answer: to emphasise the action instead of who did it
Q4.
Which is the correct passive version of this active sentence? 'The headteacher is giving the speech.'
The speech has been given by the headteacher.
The speech was being given by the headteacher.
Correct answer: The speech is being given by the headteacher.
Q5.
Which is the correct active version of this passive sentence? 'The gold has been taken by the thieves.'
The thieves are taking the gold.
Correct answer: The thieves have taken the gold.
The thieves were taking the gold.
Q6.
Which of these sentences emphasises best the 'doer' of the action?
The register was taken by Miss O'Neill.
The register was taken.
The register is being taken by Miss O'Neill.
Correct answer: Miss O'Neill is taking the register.
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