Last reviewed: 25 October 2026
Transforming sentences is a common English exam task, and two transformations cause the most trouble: active to passive voice, and direct to reported speech. Both follow clear rules. This guide sets them out with examples, so a junior school learner can practise until the changes feel automatic. Direct and indirect speech is a grammar sub-strand in KICD’s Grade 9 English curriculum design.
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Active and Passive Voice
In the active voice, the subject does the action: “The cat chased the rat.” In the passive voice, the subject receives the action: “The rat was chased by the cat.” The passive is useful when the doer is unknown or less important: “The window was broken.”
How to Change Active to Passive
- Move the object to the front as the new subject.
- Use the correct form of “be” for the tense of the original verb.
- Add the past participle of the main verb.
- Add “by” and the original subject, if needed.
Passive Voice in Different Tenses
- Simple present: She cleans the room. → The room is cleaned by her.
- Present continuous: She is cleaning the room. → The room is being cleaned by her.
- Simple past: She cleaned the room. → The room was cleaned by her.
- Past continuous: She was cleaning the room. → The room was being cleaned by her.
- Present perfect: She has cleaned the room. → The room has been cleaned by her.
- Future: She will clean the room. → The room will be cleaned by her.
- With modals: She must clean the room. → The room must be cleaned by her.
Notice how the pronoun changes from subject form to object form: “she” becomes “her”, “they” becomes “them”, “I” becomes “me”. The verb “be” must agree with the new subject: “The books were stolen”, not “was stolen”.
Direct and Reported Speech
Direct speech gives the exact words in quotation marks: Juma said, “I am tired.” Reported (indirect) speech gives the meaning without quotation marks: Juma said that he was tired.
Rules for Reported Speech
When the reporting verb is in the past (“said”, “told”, “asked”), make these changes:
- Tense moves one step back: am/is → was; are → were; present → past; past → past perfect; will → would; can → could; may → might.
- Pronouns change to fit the speaker: “I” → he or she; “my” → his or her; “we” → they.
- Time and place words change: now → then; today → that day; tomorrow → the next day; yesterday → the day before; here → there; this → that; ago → before.
Worked Examples
- Wanjiru said, “I will visit my aunt tomorrow.” → Wanjiru said that she would visit her aunt the next day.
- The teacher said, “The exam starts now.” → The teacher said that the exam started then.
- Otieno said, “I lost my pen yesterday.” → Otieno said that he had lost his pen the day before.
Reporting Questions and Commands
Yes/no questions use “if” or “whether” and normal word order with no question mark: She asked, “Are you ready?” → She asked if I was ready. Wh- questions keep the question word: He asked, “Where do you live?” → He asked where I lived. Commands use “told” or “ordered” with “to”: The teacher said, “Sit down.” → The teacher told us to sit down. Negative commands use “not to”: “Don’t run!” → She told them not to run.
When the Tense Does Not Change
If the reporting verb is in the present (“says”), keep the original tense: She says, “I am hungry.” → She says that she is hungry. Facts that are always true may also stay in the present: The teacher said that the sun rises in the east.
Practise for Accuracy
Take ten sentences from a reader and transform each one. Check tense, pronouns and punctuation. Our grammar revision guide covers tenses in more depth, and the Grade 8 English revision papers give exam practice. The exam countdown offers five free questions a day and the What to Revise report shows remaining gaps. Full papers with answers come with the Monthly Pass (KSh 500 by M-Pesa).