KS2 SATs 2023 — English GPS Paper 1: Questions

The idea

In an active sentence, the subject does the action: 'The cat chased the mouse.' In a passive sentence, the subject has the action done to it: 'The mouse was chased by the cat.' The passive is built from a form of 'be' plus the past participle, and the doer may follow 'by' — or be left out completely.

Formal writing avoids contractions and chatty vocabulary. It uses precise words such as 'request' instead of 'ask for' and 'sufficient' instead of 'enough', and sometimes the subjunctive: 'If I were you' or 'The headteacher requested that he be on time.'

To spot the passive on the paper, ask: is the subject doing the action, or receiving it? If the subject is on the receiving end, it is passive.

Worked example

Is this sentence active or passive, and how would it read in the other voice? 'The window was broken by the wind.'

1. Ask who or what did the action: the wind broke the window, but the subject of the sentence is 'the window', which received the action.
2. 'Was' plus the past participle 'broken', with the doer after 'by', confirms the passive voice.
3. To make it active, put the doer first as the subject: 'The wind broke the window.'

Answer: It is passive. In the active voice: The wind broke the window.

Watch out

• Calling a sentence passive just because it is in the past tense — tense and voice are different things.
• Forgetting that a passive sentence may leave out the doer entirely, as in 'The window was broken.'