How do I change an active sentence to passive?

Make the receiver the subject, add a form of be in the same tense as the original verb, and use the past participle. Put the doer in a by-phrase at the end. The club has hosted the meet becomes the meet has been hosted by the club.

What if a passive sentence has no by-phrase?

Then the doer is missing, and you cannot write the active version without one. That is why these sheets print the doer in parentheses. In real writing, a missing doer is often the reason the passive was chosen in the first place.

Why do the progressive tenses cause so much trouble?

Because the passive needs two forms of be at once. The crew is painting the wall becomes the wall is being painted by the crew. Students tend to drop being and write the wall is painted, which changes the meaning from happening now to done as a habit.

8th grade active and passive voice

8th grade active and passive voice worksheets

Eighth graders switch sentences in both directions, active to passive and passive to active, in every tense. The helping verbs are the hard part: has checked becomes has been checked, and is checking becomes is being checked. Some passive sentences leave out the doer, so the sheet names it, and the student puts it back in the subject slot.

Free printable PDF worksheet, aligned to Common Core L.8.1.b.

Each print is a different sheet with its own answer key. You don't need to sign up.

The kind of sentences you'll fix

Rewrite each sentence in the other voice, active to passive or passive to active. Write your sentence on the line.

The soup should be stirred every few minutes. (Doer: you)
Fixed: You should stir the soup every few minutes.
The final chorus is being rewritten by the composer herself.
The referees were reviewing the final play when the lights went out.

Every print pulls a new set of sentences at this level, so a make-up test or a second sibling gets a different mix.

What's on an 8th grade sheet

8th grade sheets draw from 52 sentences, 7 to a page. None of these sentences are on 7th grade sheets. 7th grade sheets print 8 to a page.

A few of the sentences, as the answer key corrects them:

Every letter from the war had been kept by my grandparents.
Every flight out of Chicago has been canceled by the airline.
The cause of the fire is still being debated by historians.

Fix it. Rewrite each sentence in the other voice, active to passive or passive to active. Write your sentence on the line. 7 sentences to fix per page.

Every version prints on US Letter or A4, with its answer key on the last page.

How to teach this

Have your student underline the whole verb before writing anything, helpers and all. Has been repaired is three words, and all three matter. The tense lives in the first helper, so it stays put. Been or being is what marks the passive, so it comes or goes. Then check agreement, since swapping the subject can flip is to are. Going active to passive is the direction students find harder, because they have to build the be form rather than delete it. Do a few of those out loud first. Once a student can say the ferry was being loaded without thinking, the written ones go quickly.

Watch for: Passive is not a tense. Was checked and is checked are both passive; checked and checks are both active. The question is who sits in the subject slot, not when it happened. An -ing verb does not make a sentence passive. She was checking the thermometer is active: she is still the one doing it. Passive is not an error. It is the right choice when the doer is unknown or beside the point, as in the samples were mislabeled. It is a problem only when it hides a doer the reader needs.

Common questions about 8th grade active and passive voice

How do I change an active sentence to passive?: Make the receiver the subject, add a form of be in the same tense as the original verb, and use the past participle. Put the doer in a by-phrase at the end. The club has hosted the meet becomes the meet has been hosted by the club.
What if a passive sentence has no by-phrase?: Then the doer is missing, and you cannot write the active version without one. That is why these sheets print the doer in parentheses. In real writing, a missing doer is often the reason the passive was chosen in the first place.
Why do the progressive tenses cause so much trouble?: Because the passive needs two forms of be at once. The crew is painting the wall becomes the wall is being painted by the crew. Students tend to drop being and write the wall is painted, which changes the meaning from happening now to done as a habit.

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Aligned to Common Core L.8.1.b. Reviewed by the One more sheet team. Content version 241, updated September 2026.

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