3. What is Active Voice?
The form of a verb in which subject is the person or thing that performs
the action.
Pattern of the Active Voice
Subject + Main Verb + Object
What is Passive Voice?
The form of a verb in which subject is affected by the action of the verb.
Pattern of the Passive Voice
Subject + Auxiliary Verb (Be) + Main Verb (Past Participle) + Object
4. Active Voice and Passive Voice
In grammar “Voice” means the form of a verb by
which the relation of the subject to the action
implied is indicated. In simpler words “Voice”
means the form of a transitive verb which shows
whether the person or thing denoted by the
subject acts or is acted upon. When the subject is
the doer it is Active Voice and when the subject is
acted upon it is Passive Voice.
E.g. : Jane killed Annie (Active)
Annie was killed by Jane (Passive)
It will be noticed that when the verb is
changed from active to passive the object
of the transitive verb in the active becomes
the subject of the verb in the passive voice.
5. ACTIVE
Jane killed Annie
Doer of action
Action
Acted upon
PASSIVE
Annie was killed by Jane
Acted upon
Action
Doer of action
6. Some transitive verbs take two objects in the active voice.
The two objects are called “Direct object” and “Indirect object”.
The object that comes as answer to the question “what” is called
“Direct object” . The object that comes as answer to the question
“to whom” is called “Indirect object”. Sentences which
contain such transitive verbs can be changed into passive voice in
two ways.
E.g. : He gave me a flower (Active Voice)
I was given a flower by him (Passive Voice)
A flower was given to me by him (Passive
Voice)
7. Only transitive verbs (those that take objects) can be transformed into
passive constructions. Furthermore, active sentences containing certain
verbs cannot be transformed into passive structures. To have is the most
important of these verbs. We can say “He has a new car,” but we
cannot say “ A new car is had by him”. We can say “Josefina lacked
finesse” , but we cannot say “Finesse was lacked.” Here is a brief list of
such verbs :
8. Tips to Recognize the Passive Voice
In order to recognize that a sentence is in passive voice, watch
out for these keywords:
• Be
• Is
• Are
• Was
• Were
• Has been
• Have been
• Will be
• Being
9. The Difference between Active & Passive Voice
Active
• Subject performs the action
• Active Voice is used for most
non-scientific writing.
• All tenses use their own verb
• Without using by phrase
• Not all tenses used verb be
• Transitive and Intransitive can be
used in the active
Passive
• The subject is affected by the action of
the verb
• Passive voice is used in scientific or
technical writing
• All tenses use past participle
• Using by phrase to introduce the
passive object
• In every tenses verb be must always
be present
• It can only use transitive in the passive
