Understanding Active and Passive Voice Transformation

Voice in grammar tells us whether the subject of the sentence performs the action (active voice) or is acted upon (passive voice). Converting a sentence from active to passive voice involves changing the focus from the doer of the action to the action itself and the receiver of the action.

Identifying the Tense and Structure

The given sentence is "He does not buy shirts."

• The subject is "He".
• The verb is "buy".
• The object is "shirts".
• The presence of "does not" indicates that the sentence is in the Simple Present Tense and is negative.

Rules for Converting Simple Present Negative from Active to Passive Voice

The general structure for active voice in the simple present negative tense is:

Active: Subject + do/does + not + Verb (base form) + Object

To convert this to passive voice, the structure changes to:

Passive: Object + am/is/are + not + Verb (Past Participle) + by + Subject (as object pronoun)

Applying the Rules to "He does not buy shirts."

Let's apply the passive voice conversion rules step-by-step:

1. Identify the object of the active sentence: The object is "shirts". This will become the subject of the passive sentence.
2. Choose the correct form of the verb "to be" (am, is, or are) based on the new subject: The new subject is "shirts" (plural), so we use "are".
3. Include "not" as the original sentence is negative: So we have "are not".
4. Use the past participle (V3) of the main verb: The main verb is "buy". Its past participle is "bought".
5. Add "by" followed by the original subject (converted to an object pronoun): The original subject is "He". The object pronoun is "him". So we add "by him".

Putting it all together, the passive voice sentence is: "Shirts are not bought by him."

Analyzing the Given Options

Let's evaluate each option based on the correct passive voice structure we derived:

• Option 1: Shirts are not bought by him.
  This structure matches our derived passive sentence: Object ("Shirts") + are + not + Past Participle ("bought") + by + Subject ("him"). This option correctly transforms the simple present negative active sentence into simple present negative passive voice.
• Option 2: Shirts are not brought by him.  
  This option uses "brought" instead of "bought". "Brought" is the past participle of "bring", not "buy". This makes the option incorrect.
• Option 3: Shirts were not been bought by him.  
  This option uses "were not been". "Were" indicates past tense, but the original sentence is present tense. Also, the construction "were been bought" is grammatically incorrect.
• Option 4: Shirts were not bought by him.
  This option uses "were not bought". "Were not bought" is the simple past passive tense. The original sentence is simple present active, so the passive sentence should also be in the simple present tense. This makes the option incorrect regarding the tense.

Based on the analysis, only Option 1 correctly expresses the given sentence in passive voice, maintaining the original tense (simple present) and meaning.

Revision Table: Voice Transformation Summary

Additional Information on Passive Voice

The passive voice is often used when:

• The doer of the action is unknown, unimportant, or obvious from the context.
• You want to emphasize the action or the object receiving the action rather than the doer.
• In formal writing, scientific reports, or news reports to maintain objectivity.

While converting from active to passive voice, remember to:

• Identify the object of the active sentence, which becomes the subject of the passive sentence.
• Use the correct form of the verb "to be" (am, is, are, was, were, be, being, been) corresponding to the tense of the active verb and the new subject.
• Always use the past participle (V3) of the main verb.
• Include "by" followed by the original subject if it is important to mention who performed the action.
• Ensure the tense remains the same during conversion (e.g., Simple Present Active > Simple Present Passive).