Active voice is a grammatical construction in which the subject of a sentence performs the action expressed by the verb. In other words, the subject is the doer or the agent of the action.
Example:
- John wrote a letter.
In this sentence, “John” is the subject, “wrote” is the verb, and “a letter” is the object. John is the doer of the action, which is writing the letter.
Passive voice, on the other hand, is a grammatical construction in which the subject of a sentence is acted upon by the verb. In other words, the subject is the receiver of the action.
Example:
- The letter was written by John.
In this sentence, “the letter” is the subject, “was written” is the verb, and “by John” is the prepositional phrase that indicates the doer of the action. The subject is passive because it receives the action, while John is the doer of the action.
In general, the active voice is more direct and straightforward, while the passive voice is often used to emphasize the receiver of the action or to avoid specifying the doer of the action. However, using the passive voice too frequently can make sentences sound weak or unclear.
In English grammar, the active voice is when the subject of a sentence performs the action, while the passive voice is when the subject receives the action.
Here are some general rules for converting active voice sentences to passive voice sentences and vice versa:
- The subject of the active voice sentence becomes the object of the passive voice sentence.
- The verb in the passive voice sentence is always in the past participle form (e.g., eaten, written, spoken).
- The auxiliary verb “to be” is used in the passive voice sentence (e.g., is, are, was, were). The tense of the auxiliary verb matches the tense of the active voice verb.
- The preposition “by” is used in the passive voice sentence to show who or what performed the action in the active voice sentence.
Example:
Active voice:
- The company is releasing a new product.
Passive voice:
- A new product is being released by the company.
Here, “the company” is the subject of the active voice sentence and becomes the object of the preposition “by” in the passive voice sentence. “Is releasing” becomes “is being released,” and “a new product” becomes the subject of the passive voice sentence.