Passive Voice

Passive Voice

What is the passive voice?

In general, the active voice makes your writing stronger, more direct, and, more active. The subject is something, or it does the action of the verb in the sentence. With the passive voice, the subject is acted upon by some other performer of the verb.

The difference between active and passive voice

• While tense is all about time references, voice describes whether the grammatical subject of a clause performs or receives the action of the verb.

• [subject]+[verb (performed by the subject)]+[optional object]

When (and when not) to use the passive voice

• when presenting an idea, especially in certain formal, professional, and legal discussions. Here are three common uses of the passive voice:

• Reports of crimes or incidents with unknown perpetrators

• Scientific contexts

•  When you want to emphasize an action itself and the doer of the action is irrelevant or distracting

Passive voice misuse

• using the verb to be doesn’t automatically put a verb phrase into the passive voice. You also need a past participle. That’s how to keep passive voice masqueraders from fooling you.

• Examples: "Chester’s favorite activity is kicking."

• "The bank robbery took place just before closing time"

• "There were a great number of dead leaves covering the ground"

Multiple Choice

Active: People speak Portuguese in Brazil. Passive: Portuguese ___________ in Brazil.

• is speak

• is spoken

• is spoke

• are spoken

Multiple Choice

Active: The staff cleans all the hotel rooms daily. Passive: The hotel rooms _________ daily.

• are clean

• are cleaned

• is cleaned

• is clean

Multiple Choice

A: We update the company website frequently. P: The company website ___________ frequently.

• is updated

• updated

• was updated

• update