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e.g. Active: The boys are mowing the lawn.Passive: The lawn is being mowed by the boys.In the first sentence, the subject boys is plural; therefore a plural auxiliary are is used.In the second sentence, the subject lawn is singular; therefore a singular auxiliary is isused. The agreement of verbs with noun subjects is discussed in the next chapter.b. Changing the verb from the passive voice to the active voiceWhen a verb is changed from the Passive Voice to the Active Voice, in order to preservethe meaning of the sentence, the former subject becomes the object of the verb, and,if the sentence includes a phrase beginning with the preposition by, the former objectof the preposition becomes the subject of the verb.e.g. Passive: The clover is being eaten by the cow.Active: The cow is eating the clover.In this pair of examples, the verb is being eaten, in the Passive Voice, is changed to iseating, in the Active Voice. In order to preserve the meaning of the sentence, clover,the subject of the verb in the Passive Voice, becomes the object of the verb in theActive Voice, and is placed after the verb; and cow, the object of the preposition by,becomes the subject of the verb in the Active Voice, and is placed before the verb.Other examples are:Passive: The wine was ordered by the dealer.Active: The dealer ordered the wine.Passive: The deer could have been killed by the poacher.Active: The poacher could have killed the deer.See Exercise 7.c. Changing the voice of a verb which takes both a direct object and an indirectobjectWhen a verb in the Active Voice takes both a direct object and an indirect object,either object can become the subject of the verb when the verb is put into the PassiveVoice, and the meaning of the sentence is preserved. The object which does notbecome the subject remains as an object. When a verb in the Passive Voice takes anindirect object, the indirect object is usually preceded by a preposition.e.g. Active: The guide will show you the museum.Passive: You will be shown the museum by the guide.Passive: The museum will be shown to you by the guide.In the first sentence, the verb will show, in the Active Voice, takes the direct objectmuseum, and the indirect object you . In the second and third sentences, the verb willbe shown is in the Passive Voice, and the meaning has been preserved by altering theword order and using the preposition by. In the second sentence, the former indirectobject, you, is the subject of the verb, and the former direct object, museum, remainsthe direct object. In the third sentence, the former direct object, museum, is thesubject of the verb, and the former indirect object, you, is preceded by the prepositionto.