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Active Voice vs Passive Voice

January 18, 2014 by Bret Tutor

Active Voice vs Passive Voice

Active Passive Voice Verbs Lady Reading

Verbs have many different tenses. They also have two primary forms that they take called active voice and passive voice. Active voice is the most common, and we typically speak using the active voice.

  • Active Voice: Tim drove the car.
  • Passive Voice: The car was driven by Tim.

With the active voice the object receives the action. In the example below the object is books. Here is the structure:

subject verb object
>
We read books.

With the passive voice the subject receives the action. In the example below books becomes the subject. As you will learn later in this lesson you do not always need an object when using the passive voice. Here is the structure:

subject verb object
<
Books are read by us.

The object of the active verb is the subject of the passive verb. They switch places.

subject verb object
active We read books.
passive Books are read by us.

Construction of the Passive Voice

When writing in the passive voice, there is a very simple sentence structure to keep in mind:
subject + auxiliary verb (be) + main verb (past participle)
Just keep in mind that the main verb is always in past participle form. Here are a few examples:

subject auxiliary verb (to be) main verb (past participle)
Books are read by us.
Tim was kissed by Jenny.
Fish are cared for by me.
The tire was changed by Fred.
The house was painted by Bill.

We use the passive voice when we want to make the active object more important or we do not know the active subject.

subject verb object
give importance to active object (Money) Money was donated by Joseph.
active subject unknown My cell phone has gone missing (we do not know the object)

Remember that we always use the word by to introduce the passive object if we include the passive object.
Now, let’s take a look at another example:

  • She was hit with a candlestick.

In the other examples, we used the word by to introduce the passive object, but in this case the candlestick is not the active subject. While it might be amusing to debate whether or not the candlestick decided to hit her on its own accord, it is much more likely that she was hit by someone with a candlestick. This would make the candlestick an instrument, rather than the active subject. The someone with the candlestick would be the active subject or what is also referred to as the agent.

Conjugation for the Passive Voice

We can form a passive voice in any tense. Conjugating verbs in the passive tense is actually a very simple process because the auxiliary verb is always “be” and the main verb is always written in past participle form. In order to get the tense we need the auxiliary verb must be conjugated.

  • present simple: It is broken
  • present continuous: It is being broken
  • present perfect: It has been broken

Here are some examples with most of the possible tenses:

infinitive to be thrown
simple present It is thrown
past It was thrown
future It will be thrown
conditional It would be thrown
continuous present It is being thrown
past It was being thrown
future It will be being thrown
conditional It would be being thrown
perfect simple present It has been thrown
past It had been thrown
future It will have been thrown
conditional It would have been thrown
perfect continuous present It has been being thrown
past It had been being thrown
future It will have been being thrown
conditional It would have been being thrown

Filed Under: Verbs Tagged With: Active Voice, Grammar, Passive Voice, Verbs

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