What are active and passive voices in English and how to use them correctly?
Active and passive voices are two voices that are used in English communication. In active voice, the tone of the sentence is always direct, and the subject performs some action. On the other hand, the passive voice has an indirect tone, and the target of the sentence becomes focus of the sentence on which an action is being performed.
In this article, you will learn active and passive voices in English and how to properly use them in English communication. Let’s start learning active and passive voices!
Before we dive into more detail, we need to understand the meanings of active and passive voices to understand the difference between them and then we will look at the examples to compare both of them, their purpose of using in English communication, and why do we need to learn these two voice.
What is Active Voice?
Active voice is a voice in English in which the subject comes first, followed by a verb and an object. An object is optional; we will discuss it later in this article.
An active voice sentence describes things in a direct tone, and we can easily find out what the subject is doing or performing in the sentence. In these types of sentences, the subject is always the main focus, which acts.
Take a look at the following active voice sentence!
- She likes birdwatching.
- She loves Twilight.
- She watches TV.
- A dog chases a cat.
- They play cricket.
- They perform acts.
These are two sentences are the perfect example of active voice. theses sentences have direct tone and the subject is the one who is performing the verb (action).
What is Passive Voice?
Passive voice is the opposite of active voice, in which not only the order of the sentence changes but also the tone and focus also change. The subject becomes the object, and the object comes first in the sentence. In other words, a passive sentence is in fact, an indirect way of describing things in English.
Examples of Passive Voice
- He is invited to the party.
- The car is hijacked.
- The glass is broken.
- The food is finished.
- They are told.
What is the purpose of using passive voice?
The passive voice is used to show interest in the person or object that experiences an action rather than the person or object that performs the action. In other words, the most important thing or person becomes the subject of the sentence.
Note that each passive sentence contains two verb forms; a conjugated form of “to be” and the past participle of the main verb.
Let’s take a look at the previous examples, now they are written in passive voice:
- Birdwatching is liked by her.
- Twilight is loved by her.
- TV is watched by her.
- A cat is chased by a dog.
- Crikect is played by them.
- Acts are performed by them.
Notice how the targets of the action – also the direct objects of the sentences – are now the focus. The sentences now contain a conjugated form of “to be” (is) and the main verb’s past participle (liked and loved).
Often the sentence in the passive voice are longer than sentences in the active voice simply because they have to include additional words like prepositions. Take a look at this sentence in the passive voice:
Summer break is [conjugated form of “to be”] loved [past particle of the main verb] by [preposition] my friends.
However, sentences written in the passive voice don’t necessarily need preposition. Take a look at the examples sentences below:
- The check was paid.
- He will be remembered.
- The Philippines is known for its marine biodiversity.
What are the different functions of Active and Passive Voices?
Take a look at the following examples of active and passive voices:
How to make Active and Passive Voices?
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Active and Passive Voice Examples
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Final Words
Active and passive are two forms of voices used in English. Both voices are equally important and have their own role. Active voice is used to show an action performed by a subject and the focus of the sentence is to show that a subject is doing something (performing an action). On the other hand, passive voice is used to show the function in the sentence irrespective of the subject.
The differences between active and passive voices are tone, focus, and the order of the sentence structure. Passive sentences are mostly longer than active voice sentences because we use conjugated verbs and prepositions to connect the words.
I hope this article helped you to learn active and passive voices in English. If you liked this article, please share and subscribe to our newsletter for more English learning tips and the latest blog posts to improve your knowledge. You may also want to follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.
Active and Passive Voices FAQs
What is an active voice?
Active voice in English grammar is a voice when a subject directly perfoms an actions.
What is passive voice?
Passive voice is an indirect way of saying thing in English. In passive voice the main focus of the sentence is the action being perform irrespecitve of who performed the action.
Active vs. Passive which is better in English writing?
Active voice is used to show authors’s opions. However, in news reporting passive voice is used.
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