Active & Passive Voice

• • Ana Fathiya Rosida• 10610626 • 4 SA 05

Gunadarma University

What is Active Voice?The form of a verb in which subject is the person or thing that performs the action.

Pattern of the Active VoiceSubject + Main Verb + Object

What is Passive Voice?The form of a verb in which subject is affected by the action of the verb.

Pattern of the Passive VoiceSubject + Auxiliary Verb (Be) + Main Verb (Past Participle) + Object

Active Voice and Passive Voice In grammar “Voice” means the form of a verb by which the relation of the subject to the action implied is indicated. In simpler words “Voice” means the form of a transitive verb which shows whether the person or thing denoted by the subject acts or is acted upon. When the subject is the doer it is Active Voice and when the subject is acted upon it is Passive Voice. E.g. : Jane killed Annie (Active) Annie was killed by Jane (Passive) It will be noticed that when the verb is changed from active to passive the object of the transitive verb in the active becomes the subject of the verb in the passive voice.

ACTIVE

Jane killed Annie

Doer of action Action Acted upon

PASSIVE

Annie was killed by Jane

Acted upon Action Doer of action

Some transitive verbs take two objects in the active voice. The two objects are called “Direct object” and “Indirect object”. The object that comes as answer to the question “what” is called “Direct object” . The object that comes as answer to the question “to whom” is called “Indirect object”. Sentences which contain such transitive verbs can be changed into passive voice in two ways.

E.g. : He gave me a flower (Active Voice) I was given a flower by him (Passive Voice) A flower was given to me by him (Passive Voice)

Only transitive verbs (those that take objects) can be transformed into passive constructions. Furthermore, active sentences containing certain verbs cannot be transformed into passive structures. To have is the most important of these verbs. We can say “He has a new car,” but we cannot say “ A new car is had by him”. We can say “Josefina lacked finesse” , but we cannot say “Finesse was lacked.” Here is a brief list of such verbs :

Tips to Recognize the Passive VoiceIn order to recognize that a sentence is in passive voice, watch out for these keywords: • Be• Is• Are• Was• Were• Has been• Have been• Will be• Being

The Difference between Active & Passive VoiceActive• Subject performs the action• Active Voice is used for most non-scientific writing.• All tenses use their own verb• Without using by phrase• Not all tenses used verb be• Transitive and Intransitive can be used in the active

Passive • The subject is affected by the action of the verb • Passive voice is used in scientific or technical writing

• All tenses use past participle • Using by phrase to introduce the passive object

• In every tenses verb be must always be present • It can only use transitive in the passive

Active/Passive Tenses

Happy Studying!