Active and passive voice

Level: beginner Transitive verbs have both active and passive forms: Active Passive The hunter killed the lion. The lion was killed by the hunter. Someone has cleaned the windows. The windows have been cleaned. Passive forms are made up of the verb be with a past participle: Subject be Past participle Adverbial English is spoken all over the world. The windows have been cleaned. Lunch was being served. The work will be finished soon. They might have been invited to the party. If we want to show the person or thing doing the action, we use by: She was attacked by a dangerous dog. The money was stolen by her husband. Active and passive voice 1 Active and passive voice 2 Active and passive voice 3 Level: intermediate The passive infinitive is made up of to be with a past participle: The doors are going to be locked at ten o'clock. You shouldn't have done that. You ought to be punished. We sometimes use the verb get with a past participle to form the passive: Be careful with that glass. It might get broken. Peter got hurt in a crash. We can use the indirect object as the subject of a passive verb: Active Passive I gave him a book for his birthday. He was given a book for his birthday. Someone sent her a cheque for a thousand euros. She was sent a cheque for a thousand euros. We can use phrasal verbs in the passive: Active Passive They called off the meeting. The meeting was called off. His grandmother looked after him. He was looked after by his grandmother. They will send him...

Pre-Class material • Introduction (3 min) • Just enough grammar (optional) (10 min) • Words (10 min) • Active voice (15 min) • Clear sentences (10 min) • Short sentences (20 min) • Lists and tables (15 min) • Paragraphs (10 min) • Audience (10 min) • Documents (10 min) • Punctuation (optional) (5 min) • Markdown (variable) • Summary (1 min) Estimated Time: 15 minutes The vast majority of sentences in technical writing should be in active voice. This unit teaches you how to do the following: • Distinguish passive voice from active voice. • Convert passive voice to active voice because active voice is usually clearer. First, watch this video, just to get the ball rolling Distinguish active voice from passive voice in simple sentences In an active voice sentence, an actor acts on a target. That is, an active voice sentence follows this formula: Active Voice Sentence = actor + verb + target A passive voice sentence reverses the formula. That is, a passive voice sentence typically follows the following formula: Passive Voice Sentence = target + verb + actor Active voice example For example, here’s a short, active voice sentence: The cat sat on the mat. • actor: The cat • verb: sat • target: the mat Passive voice examples By contrast, here's that same sentence in passive voice: The mat was sat on by the cat. • target: The mat • passive verb: was sat • actor: the cat Some passive voice sentences omit an actor. For example: The mat was sat on. • actor: unknown • passive verb: was ...

Sentences in the passive voice contain a conjugated form of the verb to be (is, was, has been, will be, etc.) and the past participle form of a verb. Past participle refers to an action that was started and completed in the past. These verbs typically end in -ed, -d, -en, or -t. Passive voice sentences often contain a preposition or prepositional phrase, like by. Active vs. passive voice Active voice helps writers present their information clearly and concisely. Passive voice emphasizes the action or the object within a sentence, limiting the importance of the subject. Active vs. passive voice examples Below are two lists of example sentences written in both the active and passive voice. The following are examples of active voice sentences: • She delivered the letters yesterday. • The teacher assigned a book report. • The company will hire at least two new employees. • The salesman helped the confused customer at the store. • Hundreds of tourists visit the museum each year. Below are examples of sentences written with a passive voice: • The letters were delivered by her yesterday. • A book report was assigned. • At least two new employees will be hired by the company. • The confused customer was helped at the store. • The museum is visited each year by hundreds of tourists. Active and passive voice rules General rules for active and passive voice include the following: • The placement of the subject, verb, and object determines if a sentence is active or passive. • Active ...

Mark Twain was in London when he heard that his obituary news had been published by mistake. He sent a cable to the USA, which read: the reports of my death are greatly exaggerated. Voice is one of the five basic properties of English grammar. The other four are mood, tense, person, and number. Voice is the connection between the subject and the object, which are linked through a verb. It's interesting to see how English enables us to play with sentences by changing the word order, and come up with two entirely different structures to form active and passive. While the active voice is undoubtedly the more common of the two, the passive voice is used to serve certain purposes. In this lesson, we are going to take a look at how and when we use active and passive voices. The active voice is a style of writing where the subject acts upon its verb. Here, the subject always comes first, followed by the verb and the complements. The active voice is so called because, unlike the passive voice where the subject is passive, the subject here is active. Andrew hit the ball. Students always learn by doing. People call Orlando the theme park capital of the world. Catherine doesn't enjoy visiting malls. The active voice is the more preferred of the two voices. Because using active voice helps make writing shorter, more precise, and more straightforward, a lot of people choose to use it in most of their communication. This means unless there is a specific requirement making passive voice ...

Active voice is used for most non-scientific writing. Using active voice for the majority of your sentences makes your meaning clear for readers, and keeps the sentences from becoming too complicated or wordy. Even in scientific writing, too much use of passive voice can cloud the meaning of your sentences.

What to Know When a sentence is in the active voice, the subject of the sentence is the one doing the action expressed by the verb. In the passive voice, the subject is the person or thing acted on or affected by the verb's action. The passive voice is typically formed with a form of the verb be—such as is, was, or has been—and the past participle of the verb, as in "The ball was thrown by Jerry." Although sometimes criticized for being evasive, the passive voice can be useful when someone wants to emphasize an action that has taken place or when the agent of an action is unknown, as is often the case in news coverage. Mistakes were made. In English class, we are taught the difference between active and passive voice. The The Active voice: Jerry knocked over the lamp. Passive voice: The lamp was knocked over by Jerry. Both sentences describe the same action taking place—Jerry making contact with a lamp and causing it to fall over—with the first sentence making Jerry the subject and the second making the lamp the subject. The passive voice is often distinguished by its use of a linking verb form (e.g., was, had been) followed by another verb in its past participle form (e.g., "I have been given an opportunity"). Usefulness of Passive Voice Passive voice often gets criticized as a weak and evasive form of expression. But it is useful for those instances when you want to emphasize the fact of an action having taken place rather than who performed the action. It is also helpfu...

Writing Guides and Tools • Writing as Process • Writing in Different Genres • General Writing Practices • Research-Based Writing • Scientific and Research Reports • Citing Sources • Reading Practices • Grammar & Style • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • VCLA Writing Tasks • Recursos para la escritura en español • Helpful Links • Video Resources Grammar & Style • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • In a sentence, main verbs can be in active or passive voice. A main verb is active when the subject of the sentence is the doer (or the agent) of the action. A main verb is passive when the subject of the sentence is the receiver of the action. In passive voice, the verb is composed of a form of “to be” (e.g. is, is being, was, will be) + the past participle form of the verb (e.g. watched, stolen, made, seen). This is how passive is formed in different tenses: Tense Simple Progressive Perfect Present it is explained it is being explained it has been explained Past it was explained it was being explained it had been explained Future it will be explained it will be being explained* it will have been explained* *These forms as well as the forms in the perfect progressive aspect (not included here) are uncommon. The agent of the action is not always stated in a passive voice sentence. When it is stated, it is placed in a “by” prepositional phrase. Active Passive The sports fans are applauding Jess. Jess is being applauded [by the sports fans]. We made mistakes. Mist...