In this lesson, we will examine the topic of active and passive voice examples with answers. One of the most difficult grammar issues in this regard is the use of Passive / Active Voice. It is very important to know how to use Passive / Active Voice.

WHAT ARE THE PASSIVE / ACTIVE VOICE DIFFERENCES?

The word “voice” refers to a form of verb in a sentence that indicates that the subject is performing or is affected by the action. If a sentence is written using Active Voice, the action in the sentence is performed by the subject of that sentence. If written using Passive Voice, the subject is in the position affected by the action in that sentence. If you want to highlight whether the action was done and not the person who did the action in a sentence, or if you don’t want to send directly to the person, you need to use Passive Voice. For example:

• Active: The award winning teacher prepares each student with care.
• Passive: Each student is prepared with care by the award winning teacher.

As can be seen from the example, Active Voice is the subject that performs the action in the sentence used. In other words, the “teacher” took the act of preparing students. In the sentence written using the Passive Voice structure, the “student”, who is the subject of the sentence, is in the position affected by the act of preparation. In other words, the Active Voice subject has become the Passive Voice object. The Active Voice structure deals with what people or objects do, while the Passive Voice structure deals with what happens to people or objects.

HOW TO USE PASSIVE / ACTIVE VOICE?

The verb “to be” is used to turn a sentence into a Passive Voice part. First, the Active Voice object is brought to the beginning of the sentence as the subject. Then the verb “to be” (am, is, are, was, were etc.) is brought in the proper form, and the verb “to be” is followed by the “past participle” form of the main verb. If the person performing the action is important in the sentence, the subject of the Active Voice sentence is transformed into the object of the Passive Voice sentence and is used after the preposition “by”, which means by in the sentence. For easier understanding, it can be formulated as follows:

Active Voice: Subject + Verb + Object

Passive Voice: Subject + To Be + V3 + by + …

EXAMPLES

Active: They use telephone to take nice pictures.

Passive: A telephone is used to take nice pictures.

Active: TV have made information more accessible.

Passive: Information has been made more accessible by TV.

Active: The Elissa is cleaning the my house.

Passive: The my house is being cleaned by the Elissa.

Note: Passive Voice can be used when the person doing the action is unknown or it is not necessary to specify the person performing the action. For example:

• Tea is grown in London.

It can be used to avoid the use of subjects such as “One” and “you”. For example:

• “One can hire cars cheaply” or “You can hire cars cheaply” instead ‘Cars can be hired cheaply.’

It can be used to emphasize the action itself or the event rather than the person doing the action. For example:

• Chicken is produced on a diary farm.

It can be used to give a more formal statement to a sentence or to de-personalize the action. Since Passive Voice is the event that is important, the person doing the action, that is, the subject, is not important, and so often it is not mentioned who performed the action. For example:

• Active – Somebody stole my radio.
• Passive – My radio was stolen.

Note: However, if the sentence is not fully understood without specifying who or what made it by using both passive sentences, or if the sentence is not fully understood, who or what did it is indicated by adding the word ‘by’.

• A – Tomas say that that woman is a thief.
• P – It’s said that that woman is a thief.
• P- That woman is said to be the thief.
• A – Every peoples knows she was poor.
• P – It is known that she was poor.
• P – She is known to have been poor.
• A – We thought they were sad.
• P – It was thought that they were sad.
• P – They were through to have been sad.
• A – My friends believe she has killed Bill’s wife.
• P – It is believed that she has killed Bill’s wife.
• P – She is believed to have killed Bill’s wife.