Active and Passive Voice: KS2 SPaG Worksheet

Year 6 SPaG worksheet on active and passive voice: 14 SATs-style questions with answers. Free printable PDF.

3-page A4 PDF from the Tiger Shark Education question bank (Verbs and tense): two pages of questions (tick one) and an answer page. Example questions: Which sentence is written in the active voice? Tick one. / Which sentence is written in the passive voice? Tick one.

What is the active and passive voice? In an active sentence the subject does the action (The dog chased the cat). In a passive sentence the subject has the action done to it, and the doer can be left out or introduced with ‘by’ (The cat was chased by the dog). The passive is formed with a form of be plus a past participle, and it is useful in formal and scientific writing.

Common mistakes and tips: Children often think any sentence in the past tense is passive, or that the passive must include ‘by’. Others change the tense when converting between active and passive. The key test is whether the subject of the sentence is doing the action. Practising conversions in both directions builds a secure understanding.

Quick example to try: write ‘The window was broken’ on the board and ask who broke it. Discuss why a writer might leave out the doer, then rewrite it as an active sentence with an invented subject. Repeat with a sentence from a science text to show where the passive is useful.

In the KS2 SATs, grammar and punctuation are tested in a separate paper of around 50 short questions, and this topic regularly appears. The questions on this sheet use the same styles as the test (circle, tick, underline, insert), so children practise the format as well as the knowledge.

Teaching ideas: model the first two questions together and talk through the reasoning, then let children complete the rest independently. Use the answers to group pupils for a follow-up session. For extra challenge, ask children to explain their answers in a full sentence using the correct grammatical terms.

Supporting all learners: for children who find grammar difficult, read the questions aloud and work through the first few together before they continue alone. Colour-coding word classes or clauses on mini whiteboards makes abstract ideas more concrete, and sorting word cards or building sentences from strips helps too. More confident pupils can write their own test-style questions for a partner, with the answers and a short explanation. Once each topic is secure, mix it with others, because the real test does not group questions by topic and pupils need to recognise what each question is asking them to do.