What's The Difference Between Active and Passive Voice?

Active voice
means that a sentence has a subject that acts upon its

verb. Passive voice means that a subject is a recipient of a verb’s action. You
may have learned that the passive voice is weak and incorrect, but it isn’t that
simple. When used correctly and in moderation, the passive voice is fine.
In English grammar, verbs have five properties: voice, mood, tense, person,
and number; here, we are concerned with voice. The two grammatical voices
are active and passive.
What’s the difference between active and passive

voice?
Active voice
When the subject of a sentence performs the verb’s action, we say that the
sentence is in the active voice. Sentences in the active voice have a strong,
direct, and clear tone. Here are some short and straightforward examples of
active voice.
Active voice examples

Monkeys adore bananas.
The cashier counted the money.
The dog chased the squirrel.
All three sentences have a basic active voice construction: subject, verb, and
object. The subject monkey performs the action described by adore. The
subject the cashier performs the action described by counted. The subject the
dog performs the action described by chased. The subjects are doing, doing,
doing—they take action in their sentences. The active voice reminds us of the
popular Nike slogan, “Just Do It.”
Passive voice
A sentence is in the passive voice, on the other hand, when the subject is

acted on by the verb. The passive voice is always constructed with a
conjugated form of to be plus the verb’s past participle. Doing this usually
generates a preposition as well. That sounds much more complicated than it
is—passive voice is actually quite easy to detect. For these examples of
passive voice, we will transform the three active sentences above to illustrate
the difference.
Passive voice examples

Bananas are adored by monkeys.
The money was counted by the cashier.
The squirrel was chased by the dog.
Let’s take a closer look at the first pair of sentences, “Monkeys adore
bananas” and “Bananas are adored by monkeys.” The active sentence
consists of monkeys (subject) + adore (verb) + bananas (object). The passive
sentence consists of bananas (object) + are adored (a form of to be plus the
past participle adored) + by (preposition) + monkeys (subject). Making the
sentence passive flipped the structure and necessitated the preposition by. In
fact, all three of the transformed sentences above required the addition of by.
When to use active and passive voice
Using the active voice conveys a strong, clear tone and the passive voice is
subtler and weaker. Here’s some good advice: don’t use the passive voice
just because you think it sounds a bit fancier than the active voice.
That said, there are times the passive voice is useful and called for. Take “The
squirrel was chased by the dog,” for example. That sentence construction
would be helpful if the squirrel were the focus of your writing and not the dog.
A good rule of thumb is to try to put the majority of your sentences in the
active voice, unless you truly can’t write your sentence in any other way.
How to change a sentence in passive voice to

active voice
Here is an example of a business communication that could be strengthened

by abandoning the passive voice.
An error has occurred with your account, but every attempt was made to remedy it.
That sentence is not incorrect, but it does sound a bit stiff and dishonest. It
sounds less trustworthy than it could—almost evasive. Who wants to do
business with a company that avoids taking full responsibility by slipping into
formal passive voice territory? Face the responsibility head on instead. Own it.
We made an error with your account, but we have made every attempt to remedy it.
To make that sentence active rather than passive, I identified the subject: we.
It was “our company” that was responsible.
If there are any questions, I can be reached at the number below.
Here’s a tip: What to remember: to change a sentence from passive voice into active
voice, identify the subject.
The structure of this sentence is weak because it doesn’t identify the subjects
in either clause. Let’s unveil them. Who might have questions to ask? The
person being addressed: you. Who will be doing the reaching (by calling the
number below)? It is still the communication’s recipient.
If you have any questions, call me at the number below.

What's The Difference Between Active and Passive Voice?

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

What's The Difference Between Active and Passive Voice?

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

What's The Difference Between Active and Passive Voice?

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Active voice

means that a sentence has a subject that acts upon its

What’s the difference between active and passive

Active voice examples

The dog chased the squirrel.

A sentence is in the passive voice, on the other hand, when the subject is

Passive voice examples

The squirrel was chased by the dog.

How to change a sentence in passive voice to

Here is an example of a business communication that could be strengthened

You might also like

Pfad - The Proxy pFad of © 2024 Garber Painting. All rights reserved.