Past perfect (active and passive voice)

Past perfect (active and passive voice)

In this post, we will learn how to use the passive voice of the past perfect tense and how to change the active voice to the passive voice of the past perfect tense.

Active and passive voice in the Past perfect tense

Let’s understand in which situations we use the active and passive voice in the past perfect tense.

When to use the active voice in the Past perfect tense?

We write sentences in the active voice of the Past Perfect when we want to focus on the person/people who have performed an action in the past before another action or time.

Structure: Subject + had + past participle (V3) + object

• Subject = the doer of the action
• Object = the receiver of the action

Examples:

• She had finished the project before the deadline.
• They had quit the job.

In these examples, we are focusing on the person or persons who performed the action in the past.

When to use the passive voice in the Past perfect tense?

 

Sentences are written in the past perfect passive when we want to focus on the receiver of the action: when we want to talk about what or who the author of the action has acted on.

And since we shift the focus to the object of the verb from the subject, the object becomes the subject and the subject (doer) becomes an irrelevant or less important entity in a sentence.

Structure: Object + had been + past participle (V3) + by + subject (doer)

Examples:

• The project had been completed by her before the deadline.
• The job had been quit by them.

Active and passive voice of Past perfect tense

Active voice:	Subject	had	V3	object
Passive voice:	object	had + been	V3	(by + subject)

 

• Active: I had paid the money.
  (focusing on the doer of the action ‘I’)
• Passive: The money had been paid (by me).
  (focusing on the object that the action was acted upon ‘The money’)

Note that we usually do not add the author of the action to the sentence, as it is not important to the meaning of the sentence or is already understood. But it is entirely your choice to do so.

Changing active voice into passive voice in the Past Perfect tense

Active: We had trained them well.
Passive: They had been trained well (by us).

Active: Some people had followed her to her office.
Passive: She had been followed to her office (by some people).

Active: The teacher had thrown us out of the class.
Passive: We had been thrown out of the class (by the teacher).

Active: They had copied all my answers.
Passive: All my answers had been copied (by them).

Active: Someone had stolen my car before I reached home.
Passive: My car had been stolen (by someone) before I reached home.

Active: The police had arrested him.
Passive: He had been arrested (by the police).

Active: His parents had warmed him before he did the crime.
Passive: He had been warned (by his parents) before he did the crime.

Active: She had saved my family from those people.
Passive: My family had been saved from those people (by her).

Negative sentences (Active and voice voice)

Active and passive voice of Past perfect tense (negative sentences)

Active voice:	Subject	had	not	V3	object
Passive voice:	Object	had + been	not	V3	by + subject (optional)

Active: He had not invited me for the party.
Passive: I had not been invited for the party (by him).

Active: Sam hadn’t helped us at all.
Passive: We hadn’t been helped at all (by Sam).

Active: We had not recorded the video.
Passive: The video had not been recorded (by us).

Active: She hadn’t bought anything at the store.
Passive: Nothing had been bought at the store (by her).

NOTE: If ‘anything’ is the object of the active verb in a negative sentence, it will change to ‘nothing’ in the passive voice.

Interrogative sentences (Active and voice voice)

Active and passive voice of Past perfect tense (interrogative sentences)

Active voice:	Question words (if any)	had	subject	V3	object?
Passive voice:	Question words	had	object	been + V3	(by + subject)?

Examples:

Active: Had you called me?
Passive: Had I been called by you?

Active: Had he not helped you in your assignment?
Passive: Had you not been helped in your assignment by him?

Active: Had they contacted you for the class?
Passive: Had you been contacted for the class by them?

Active: Where had she invested the money?
Passive: Where had the money been invested by her?

Active: Why had you sold the car?
Passive: Why had the car been sold by you?

Active: What had you taken before lunch?
Passive: What had been taken before lunch by you?

Practice!

1. Nobody had helped me in my tough times.
2. My friends had supported my family.
3. Some people had attacked his wife.
4. Where had he taken the money from?
5. Had they called her?
6. How had you done that?
7. Everyone had mocked me for my pronunciation.
8. They hadn’t released the movie before the end.
9. Somebody had deposited a lot of money into my account.
10. I had not caught the train.

Answers:

1. I had not been helped in my tough times by anyone.
2. My family had been supported by my friends.
3. His wife had been attacked by some people.
4. Where had the money been taken from by him?
5. Had she been called by them?
6. How had that been done by you?
7. I had been mocked for my pronunciation by everyone.
8. The movie hadn’t been released before the end.
9. A lot of money had been deposited into my account by someone.
10. The train had not been caught by me.