Passive voice vs Active voice

Active Voice & Passive Voice

What they are, and what they do.

Can you guess...

What the active voice and passive voice are?

Oh, and by the way, both voices can be used with any tense and any type of sentence.

Active Voice

• The active voice focuses on the person, animal, or thing--basically the subject--that performs an action.

• Here are some examples:

• “The dog chased the ball.”

• "Mimi brought us another dead rat this morning."

• "Hambo is chewing on his cage for some reason."

• Active = the subject does something to a recipient (object)

Passive Voice

• The passive voice focuses on the recipient of the action, or just the action itself.

• Here are a few examples:

• “The ball was chased by the dog.”

• “My car was stolen on Sunday night.”

• "The zucchini was instantly devoured by Hambo."

• Passive = what happened to a recipient (object)

• The person who does the action is unknown: My cellphone was stolen. (We don't know who stole it so please don't ask!)

• The person who does the action is unimportant: The streets are repaired after the storm. (It is unimportant who is doing it, now we won't have any potholes anymore!)

• The person who does the action is obvious: After the car chase, the two criminals were arrested. (For sure it was not your grandmother, the only ones who can arrest are the police.)

Other uses

We can also use passive voice when we don't want to take responsibility for an action or we don't want to blame someone else:

*Look the window is broken!

(I did it but no one knows and I don't want to get in trouble for this.)

*Some bad things have been told about you but we are sure they're not true.

(In fact your secretary told me but I don't want you to know.)

Structure

As any other sentence, these sentences have a subject, a verb and complement.

The part of the verb is formed by the verb to be, which is conjugated in the tense you want to use and the past participle form of the action.

Sometimes doing exercise in which you switch from active to passive help to get familiarized with the structure but in real life you will not have time to think your idea in active and then turn it into passive.

All passive sentences need the past participle form of the action in their structure.

Therefore notice how we follow the conjugation rules we already know to apply them on the verb to be.

Active VS Passive

• Active : The cats were chasing after mice.

• Passive: The mice were being chased by the cats.

• Active: Someone stole my car.

• Passive: My car was stolen by someone.

• Active: He writes a lot of news articles.

• Passive: A lot of news articles were written by him.

Quiz time!

Do you think you've understood both the active voice and the passive voice?

Multiple Choice

What is the active voice?

• the voice that highlight the person, animal, or thing that performs an action

• the voice that focuses on the recipient of the action, or just the action itself

Multiple Choice

What is the passive voice?

• the voice that highlight the person, animal, or thing that performs an action

• the voice that focuses on the recipient of the action, or just the action itself

Multiple Choice

What voice is the sentence below written in?

"We are going to watch a movie tonight."

• Active

• Passive

Multiple Choice

What voice is the sentence below written in?

"The olives are stoned and crushed in this room."

• Active

• Passive

Multiple Choice

What voice is the sentence below written in?

"The document had been read by the public."

• Active

• Passive

Multiple Choice

What voice is the sentence below written in?

"The teacher always answers the students' questions."

• Active

• Passive

Multiple Choice

What voice is the sentence below written in?

"Larry generously donated money to the homeless shelter."

• Active

• Passive

Multiple Choice

What voice is the sentence below written in?

"His parade uniform was stolen."

• Active

• Passive

Reorder

Reorder the following

• My first

• trip abroad

• will

• always be

• remembered

1

2

3

4

5

• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5

Reorder

Reorder the following

• The entire house

• was

• painted

• by

• Tom.

1

2

3

4

5

• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5

Reorder

Reorder the following

• George

• was

• honored

• with

• an award .

1

2

3

4

5

• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5

Multiple Choice

It was stolen in the middle of the night.

• Active Voice

• Passive Voice

Multiple Choice

Our survey was completed by seventy participants.

• Active Voice

• Passive Voice

Multiple Choice

Thomas Jefferson’s support of the new Constitution was documented in a letter to James Madison. 

• Active Voice

• Passive Voice

Multiple Choice

Thomas Jefferson documented his support of the new Constitution in a letter to James Madison.

• Active Voice

• Passive Voice

Fill in the Blank

Complete the sentences:

"I am doing my homework."

Passive Voice:

My homework is .................. done.

Multiple Choice

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire ______________ by J K Rowling

• was written

• written

• wrote

Multiple Choice

J K Rowling _____________ Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

• was written

• written

• wrote

Multiple Choice

The judge ________________ Smith to five years in prison.

•  was sentenced

•   sentenced

Multiple Choice

Smith _____________ to five years in prison.

•  was sentenced

•   sentenced

Multiple Choice

Over a million dollars in cash __________________ from a bank in Los Angeles.

• has stolen

• has been stolen

Multiple Choice

I'll have to come by bus as my car __________________ .

• is repairing

• is being repaired

Multiple Choice

Archaeologists _____________ the gold in a cave near the top of the mountain.

• were discovered

   

•  was discovered

•  discovered

Multiple Choice

The meeting ______________ until the end of the month.

• has postponed

• has been postponed

• been postponed

Multiple Choice

VW cars _____________ in Germany and the Czech Republic.

• making

• are made

• make

Multiple Choice

Your letter ______________ yesterday morning.

• was arrived

• arrived

• has arrived

Multiple Choice

It ____________________ that the painting is a fake.

•  is now believed

• believed now

• is believing