In most English sentences with an action verb, the subject performs the action denoted by the verb.
These examples show that the subject is doing the verb's action.
Because the subject does or 'acts upon' the verb in such sentences, the sentences are said to be in the active voice.
One can change the normal word order of many active sentences (those with a direct object) so that the subject is no longer active, but is, instead, being acted upon by the verb - or passive.
Note in these examples how the subject-verb relationship has changed.
Because the subject is being 'acted upon' (or is passive), such sentences are said to be in the passive voice.
NOTE:Colorful parrots live in the rainforests cannot be changed to passive voice because the sentence does not have a direct object.
To change a sentence from active to passive voice, do the following:
1. Move the active sentence's direct object into the sentence's subject slot
2. Place the active sentence's subject into a phrase beginning with the prepositionby
3. Add a form of the auxiliary verbbe to the main verb and change the main verb's form
Because passive voice sentences necessarily add words and change the normal doer-action-receiver of action direction, they may make the reader work harder to understand the intended meaning.
As the examples below illustrate, a sentence in active voice flows more smoothly and is easier to understand than the same sentence in passive voice.
It is generally preferable to use the ACTIVE voice.
To change a passive voice sentence into an active voice sentence, simply reverse the steps shown above.
1. Move the passive sentence's subject into the active sentence's direct object slot
2. Remove the auxiliary verb be from the main verb and change main verb's form if needed
3. Place the passive sentence's object of the preposition by into the subject slot.
Because it is more direct, most writers prefer to use the active voice whenever possible.
The passive voice may be a better choice, however, when
- the doer of the action is unknown, unwanted, or unneeded in the sentence
Examples
- the writer wishes to emphasize the action of the sentence rather than the doer of the action
Examples
- the writer wishes to use passive voice for sentence variety.
Directions: In the following question, a sentence has been given in Active/Passive Voice. Out of the four alternatives suggested, select the one which best expresses the same sentence in Passive/Active Voice.
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Active Vs Passive Voice
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The beavers have built a perfect dam across the stream- Question 6 of 25
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After driving professor Kumar to the museum she dropped him at his hotel.- Question 16 of 25
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Cigarette smoking causes two million deaths annually in the industrial stages.- Question 25 of 25
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About the Passive Voice Detector
The passive voice detector automatically detects passive voice in a block of text (now with the aid of zombies!).
When a sentence is written in passive voice, the subject is being acted upon rather than doing the acting. Passive voice is often avoided by professional writers because it can make the sentence needlessly longer, more complicated and unclear as well as shifting the emphases away from the sentence subject. While there's nothing grammatically incorrect about passive voice, the general rule of thumb is to strive for less than 2% passive voice.
The most common passive voice construction is a variant of the auxiliary verb 'to be' followed by the past participle of a transitive verb. Our passive voice detector finds this form, as well as other less common constructions, including additional auxiliary verbs like 'get' (e.g. 'Every friday he gets paid.'). A common mistake is to assume every past form of the 'to be' verb is passive voice (e.g. 'Grandma was calling.'). In the second example, the subject (Grandma) is preforming the action. This is an example of past progressive tense and is not considered passive voice.
Still unsure what is considered passive voice? Try the Zombie test. If you can add the phrase 'by zombies' after the verb and the sentence still makes sense, it's passive voice. The sentence 'Every friday he gets paid by Zombies' makes grammatical sense where 'Grandma was calling by zombies' does not.
To get started enter your text in the Passage to be Analyzed box. If you want to leave a passive construction in the text, you can dismiss the warning by clicking on it in the Passive Voice Tab.
Have your own website? Now you can use the Site Thin Content Checker to analyze the content of each page on your site with the Passive Voice Detector, as well as and other Writing Assistance Tools.