difference between active and passive voice

#Difference between active and passive voice how to#

“I” is hearing “it,” the object of the sentence. A straightforward example is the sentence “Steve loves Amy.” Steve is the subject, and he is doing the action: he loves Amy, the object of the sentence.Īnother example is the title of the Marvin Gaye song “I Heard It through the Grapevine.” “I” is the subject, the one who is doing the action. In an active sentence, the subject is doing the action. I’ll start with active voice because it’s simpler. It is typically recommended that writers use active voice in academic writing, as it allows the writer to provide direct and concise information.Well, Brian is right, the first step is to help people understand the difference between active and passive voice, because many people believe they should avoid the passive voice, but fewer people can define it or recognize it. Passive Voice: The pizza was (conjugated form of to be)eaten (past participle verb) by the entire team.Īctive Voice: The entire team ate (new conjugated verb) the pizza. The subject should then be placed before the new verb. To change this type of passive voice to an active sentence, remove the verb to be and change the verb form to agree with the subject. Passive Voice: The apples were sold all day.Īctive Voice: The farmer (subject) sold the apples all day.Ĭonjugation and Past Participle: Sentences written in passive voice include a conjugated form of to be followed by the past participle form of the main verb. If the subject or “doer” of the action is not identified, rewrite the sentence with it positioned before the main verb. Missing Subject: The grammatical subject of the sentence is often omitted in passive voice. Passive Voice: A letter (object) was written by him (subject) to his family.Īctive Voice: He (subject) wrote a letter (object) to his family. Switching the position of the object and subject will change the sentence to active voice. Position of subject and object: The position of the subject and the object in a passive sentence are often switched, with the object placed before the verb and the subject placed after. To change a sentence from passive to active, first determine what makes the sentence passive, and then apply one of the following rules:

#Difference between active and passive voice how to#

How to change passive voice to active voice Passive Voice: The entire cake was eaten (past participle) by himself. The verb form can determine if a sentence is active or passive.Īctive Voice: He ate (past tense verb) the entire cake by himself. Passive Voice: The fire was extinguished in less than an hour.

The subject does not need to be directly identified when using passive voice. Passive Voice: The fence (object) was jumped over by the dog (subject). Interchanging the object and subject determines if a sentence is active or passive.Īctive Voice: The dog (subject) jumped over the fence (object). Passive Voice: object + to be + past participle verb + subject (optional) The placement of the subject, verb, and object determines if a sentence is active or passive. General rules for active and passive voice include the following: The museum is visited each year by hundreds of tourists. The confused customer was helped at the store. The letters were delivered by her yesterday.Īt least two new employees will be hired by the company. Hundreds of tourists visit the museum each year.īelow are examples of sentences written with a passive voice: The salesman helped the confused customer at the store.

The company will hire at least two new employees. The following are examples of active voice sentences: Below are two lists of example sentences written in both the active and passive voice.