Download 1 ACTIVE VS. PASSIVE VOICE Active and passive voices refer to

ACTIVE VS. PASSIVE VOICE
Active and passive voices refer to the relationship between the subject and the verb. In an
active sentence, the subject is doing something. In a passive sentence, the subject does nothing; it
is acted upon.
Although there are occasions when the passive voice is appropriate, it can sound dull and
wordy. The passive voice has its specific uses in writing, but most of your writing will not need
the passive voice because the active voice makes your writing stronger and livelier.
Switching from passive to active voice is really very simple. Instead of having something
happen to the subject, you make the subject do something.
The pizza was eaten by the girls. (passive)
s.
The girls ate the pizza. (active)
s.
Sometimes, you may be tempted to use the passive voice to avoid a first person point of
view. The result can be stilted and awkward.
The house was cleaned, the fish were fed, and then the expensive vase was broken.
(passive, 3rd person)
I cleaned the house, I fed the fish, and then I broke the expensive vase. (active, 1st
person)
In other words, it’s important to ask yourself, “who kicked whom?”. Once you are able
to recognize the subject of the active sentence, you should be able to make a passive sentence
active, so that the object becomes the subject of the active sentence.
Sally kicked John. (active)
s.
o.
John was kicked by Sally. (passive)
s.
o.
In both sentences, Sally is the one who is doing the action.
If you find you are using the passive voice in your writing, here are three steps to help
you turn a passive sentence into an active one:
1. The original object becomes the subject.
2. Delete the to be form + Past Participle
3. The object of the “active” sentence becomes subject in the “passive” sentence,
and the subject of the “active” sentence becomes “object” in the “passive”
sentence (or is left out).
1
This is much easier than it sounds. Let’s turn a passive sentence into an active sentence.
Passive: The cookie was given to John.
s.
v.
o.
In this sentence, “the cookie” is the subject, “was given” is the verb, and “John” is the
indirect object. To make this sentence active, we need to turn the object, John, into the subject.
John ate the cookie. (Active)
s. v.
o.
The cookie is a direct object because it is the thing being acted upon by the subject, John.
He is eating the cookie.
We have listed active and passive forms in the following table. We used the phrase I
choose and have put this phrase into most common tenses.
Active (Simple Forms)
Passive (Simple Forms)
Simple Present
I choose
Simple Present I am chosen
Simple Past
I chose
Simple Past
Present Perfect
I have chosen
Present Perfect I have been chosen
Past Perfect
I had chosen
Past Perfect
I had been chosen
will-future
I will choose
will-future
I will be chosen
Future Perfect
I will have chosen
Future Perfect
I will have been chosen
Conditional I
I would choose
Conditional I
I would be chosen
Conditional II
I would have chosen
Conditional II
I would have been chosen
I was chosen
Active (Progressive/Continuous Forms)
Passive (Progressive/Continuous Forms)
Simple Present
I am choosing
Present
I am being chosen
Simple Past
I was choosing
Past
I was being chosen
Present Perfect
I have been choosing
Present Perfect ¹ I have been being chosen
Past Perfect
I had been choosing
Past Perfect ¹
I had been being chosen
will-future
I will be choosing
Future ¹
I will be being chosen
Future Perfect
I will have been
choosing
Future Perfect ¹
I will have been being
chosen
Conditional I
I would be choosing
Conditional I ¹ I would be being chosen
I would have been
I would have been being
Conditional II ¹
choosing
chosen
¹ These tenses are rarely used in everyday conversation.
Conditional II
2
Here you will find some examples of how to form the passive depending on the tense.
Tense
Active
Passive
Simple Present
Peter builds a house.
A house is built by Peter.
Simple Past
Peter built a house.
A house was built by Peter.
Present Perfect
Peter has built a house.
A house has been built by Peter.
Past Perfect
Peter had built a house.
A house had been built by Peter.
will-future
Peter will build a house.
A house will be built by Peter.
going to-future
Peter is going to build a
house in summer.
A house is going to be built in summer by
Peter.
 Questions in Passive Voice
Yes/No questions in Passive voice, in both simple present and simple past tense, are formed
with to be and the past participle. Sometimes, you use question words, such as who, when,
where, when, why, and what to make a question.
1a. Questions without question words in Passive (Simple Present)
Form of
to be
Is
Are
Subject
Past
participle
the test written
grapes grown
Yes/No
Subject
Auxiliary
(+ n’t)
Yes,
it
is.
in room 311? No,
it
is not.
No,
it
isn’t.
Yes,
they
are.
in California? No,
they
are not.
No,
they
aren’t.
Rest
3
1b. Questions with question words in Passive (Simple Present)
Question Form of
word
to be
Subject
Past
Rest
participle
Where
is
the test written?
Why
are
grapes grown
Answer
The test is written in room
311.
in
California?
Grapes are grown in
California because it's
warm and sunny.
2a. Questions without question words in Passive (Simple Past)
Form
Subject
of to be
Was
the book
the
students
Were
Past
participle
Rest
taken
to the
classroom?
taught
at home?
Yes/No
Subject
Auxiliary
(+ n't)
Yes,
it
was.
No,
it
was not.
No,
it
wasn’t.
Yes,
they
were.
No,
they
were not.
No,
they
weren’t.
2b. Questions with question words in Passive (Simple Past)
Question
word
Form
Subject
of to be
Where
was
the book taken?
were
the
taught
students
Why
Past
Rest
participle
Answer
The book was taken to the
classroom.
The students were taught at
at
home because the school was
home?
closed.
When to Use Passive Voice
There are certain times when it is appropriate to use the passive voice. The first is when
you do not need to know who did something, or when we don’t know who did it.
My car was stolen yesterday. (passive)
Someone stole my car yesterday. (active)
4
You can also use the Passive voice in incidents of tragedy, accident or violence.
She was kidnapped. (passive)
Someone kidnapped her. (active)
Exercise:
Change the following sentences to the active voice.
1. A candidate will be elected as mayor by the public next year.
2. A batch of cookies was made by my son this morning.
3. The subway fare will be raised to $1.50 next week by the city.
4. The play has been called witty and warm by well-known and knowledgeable critics.
5. The pumpkin was tossed off the bridge by that group of trick-or-treaters.
6. My book was dropped off at the library.
7. An example of a passive sentence was demanded by the professor.
8. The guitar was played by the musician.
This handout is based on the following texts:
Harper, Vincent F. Essentials of English. Fourth Ed. Barron’s, USA. 1990.
Kolln, Martha. Understanding English Grammer. Second Ed. MacMillan Publishing Company,
New York. 1986.
For further reference, see the following books:
Beason, Larry and Mark Lester. A Commonsense Guide to Grammar and Usage. 2nd ed.
Boston: Bedford.
Holschuh, Louis W. The Functions of English Grammar. New York: St. Martin’s.
All of the above texts are available in the Writing Center. For more information, please visit our website at
http://www.lavc.edu/writingcenter/
Rev. 07/08/13
5