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    Active Passive Voice

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    Manuel Garcia Grandy
    This document discusses the differences between active and passive voice. In active voice, the subject performs the action of the verb. In passive voice, the subject is receiving the action of the verb. The document provides examples and steps for changing a sentence from active to passive voice and vice versa. It cautions that passive voice can make sentences harder to understand and recommends using active voice whenever possible, except in cases where the doer is unknown, unneeded, or emphasis is on the action rather than the doer.

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    Active Passive Voice

    Uploaded by

    Manuel Garcia Grandy
    111 views7 pages
    This document discusses the differences between active and passive voice. In active voice, the subject performs the action of the verb. In passive voice, the subject is receiving the action of the verb. The document provides examples and steps for changing a sentence from active to passive voice and vice versa. It cautions that passive voice can make sentences harder to understand and recommends using active voice whenever possible, except in cases where the doer is unknown, unneeded, or emphasis is on the action rather than the doer.

    Original Description:

    ESL Grammar Exercises

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    This document discusses the differences between active and passive voice. In active voice, the subject performs the action of the verb. In passive voice, the subject is receiving the action of the verb. The document provides examples and steps for changing a sentence from active to passive voice and vice versa. It cautions that passive voice can make sentences harder to understand and recommends using active voice whenever possible, except in cases where the doer is unknown, unneeded, or emphasis is on the action rather than the doer.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    111 views7 pages

    Active Passive Voice

    Uploaded by

    Manuel Garcia Grandy
    This document discusses the differences between active and passive voice. In active voice, the subject performs the action of the verb. In passive voice, the subject is receiving the action of the verb. The document provides examples and steps for changing a sentence from active to passive voice and vice versa. It cautions that passive voice can make sentences harder to understand and recommends using active voice whenever possible, except in cases where the doer is unknown, unneeded, or emphasis is on the action rather than the doer.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    of 7

    Active / Passive Voice

    ACTIVE / PASSIVE VOICE

    Active voice

    In most English sentences with an action verb, the subject performs the action
    denoted by the verb.

    These examples show that the subject is doing the verb's action.

    Because the subject does or "acts upon" the verb in such sentences, the
    sentences are said to be in the active voice.

    To see how well you understand active voice, do Exercise 1.

    Passive voice

    One can change the normal word order of many active sentences (those with
    a direct object) so that the subject is no longer active, but is, instead, being acted
    upon by the verb - or passive.

    Note in these examples how the subject-verb relationship has changed.


    Because the subject is being "acted upon" (or is passive), such sentences are said
    to be in the passive voice.

    Now do Exercise 2.

    Writers can change most sentences from active to passive or from


    passive to active as desired.

    To change a sentence from active to passive voice, do the following:

    1. Move the active sentence's direct object into the sentence's subject slot

    2. Place the active sentence's subject into a phrase beginning with


    the preposition by

    3. Add a form of the auxiliary verb be to the main verb and change the main
    verb's form as required
    Now do Exercise 3.

    A CAUTION ABOUT PASSIVE VOICE:

    Because passive voice sentences necessarily add words and change the
    normal doer-action-receiver of action direction, they may make the reader work
    harder to understand the intended meaning.

    As the examples below illustrate, a sentence in active voice flows more smoothly
    and is easier to understand than the same sentence in passive voice.
    It is generally preferable to use the ACTIVE voice.

    To change a passive voice sentence into an active voice sentence, simply reverse
    the steps shown above.

    1. Move the passive sentence's subject into the active sentence's direct object
    slot

    2. Remove the auxiliary verb be from the main verb and change main verb's
    form if needed
    3. Place the passive sentence's object of the preposition by into the subject slot.

    Some passive voice sentences may not even mention a doer of the
    action.

    Example:

    To change sentences like these into active voice, create a doer-of-the-


    action subject.

    Example:
    Because active voice is more direct, most writers prefer to use it whenever
    possible.

    Now do Exercise 4.

    When should one use the passive voice?

    The passive voice may be a better choice when

    the doer of the action is unknown, unwanted, or unneeded in the sentence

    Examples

    Since we do not know (or need to know) who counted the ballots or
    who appreciates our efforts, passive voice works fine in the example
    above.

    The passive voice may also be a better choice when

    the writer wishes to emphasize the action of the sentence rather than the
    doer of the action

    Examples
    The above examples emphasize what happened -- something was
    broken, someone was questioned for sixteen hours --rather
    than who made it happen.

    The passive voice may also be a better choice when

    the writer wishes to use passive voice for sentence variety.

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