Verb Voice and Mood · seed 1 · A4, ink-friendly. The answer key prints on its own page for grown-ups.

Verb Voice and Mood

English · Grammar & Punctuation · ages 12-14
Name ______________________   Date ____________

  1. Noor wants to tell her brother to close the door. Which mood should her sentence use?

    • Indicative mood
    • Subjunctive mood
    • Imperative mood

  2. Which sentence is in the indicative mood?

    • If the window were open, the room would be cooler.
    • Close the window, please.
    • The window is open.

  3. Which sentence is in the active voice?

    • The trophy was won.
    • The trophy was won by the team.
    • The team won the trophy.

  4. Which sentence is written in the passive voice?

    • The cat chases mice.
    • The cat chased the mouse.
    • The mouse was chased by the cat.

  5. A recipe card says: "Chop the onions, then fry them gently." Which mood does the recipe use, and why?

    • Subjunctive, because dinner is only a wish
    • Imperative, because it tells the reader what to do
    • Indicative, because it gives facts about onions

  6. "If I were taller, I would reach the shelf" states something that is true right now.

    Circle one:   True   False

  7. Which is the correct passive rewrite of "The chef baked the bread"?

    • The chef was baking the bread.
    • The bread baked the chef.
    • The bread was baked by the chef.

  8. A sentence in the indicative mood can be written in either the active or the passive voice.

    Circle one:   True   False

  9. Which sentence uses the subjunctive mood to express a wish?

    • I wish I were on the team.
    • I am on the team.
    • Join the team today.

  10. For a formal report, which passive rewrite of "The students planted seeds in each tray" is correct?

    • Seeds were planting the students in each tray.
    • The students were planted by seeds in each tray.
    • Seeds were planted in each tray.
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Answer key

For grown-ups. Fold this page away before handing over the rest.

Verb Voice and Mood W1-mt_N5tciHU8cE-s1

  1. Imperative mood · Telling someone to do something is a command, and commands use the imperative mood: "Close the door."
  2. The window is open. · "The window is open" states a fact, which is the indicative mood's job. The others give a command or imagine something.
  3. The team won the trophy. · "The team won the trophy" puts the doer, the team, in the subject spot. The other two start with the trophy, which receives the action.
  4. The mouse was chased by the cat. · "The mouse was chased by the cat" puts the mouse, the receiver of the action, in the subject spot, which marks passive voice.
  5. Imperative, because it tells the reader what to do · A recipe gives orders step by step. Telling the reader what to do is the imperative mood's job.
  6. False · The sentence imagines being taller, which is not the case. "Were" plus "would" signals a hypothetical, not a fact.
  7. The bread was baked by the chef. · In the passive rewrite, the bread (the thing acted on) becomes the subject, and "by the chef" shows who did it.
  8. True · Mood and voice are separate choices. "I dropped the beaker" and "The beaker was dropped" both state facts, so both are indicative.
  9. I wish I were on the team. · "I wish I were" uses were for something that is not true, the classic subjunctive signal.
  10. Seeds were planted in each tray. · Move the receiver, seeds, to the front, then use "were planted." The doer can be left out, which suits a formal report.
Worksheet · LightMySky