Passive and Active Sentences Theory and Examples Forum

[senperfect]

Passive and Active Sentences: Theory & Examples

A common edit that English editing services and book editors make with their clients is to change the passive voice to the active voice. Technically the passive voice is a correct voice, and is widely used in other languages, but it is uncommonly used by native English speakers and it is usually better to use the active voice. Things are less effective when presented in the passive voice.

Good English writing uses a mix of both voices, but non-native speakers often rely too heavily on the passive voice. Learning the differences between them and using proofreading services can help you to get the right balance and increase the effectiveness of your writing.

Active Voice vs Passive Voice
The ‘voice’ of a sentence is defined by who the target of the action is. For the active voice, the subject is doing something to an object. The action would be the verb in question, the object would usually be a noun and the subject would come before the target. For example “Tom writes in the active voice”, where the subject is Tom, the action is him writing, and the object is ‘the active voice’.
For the passive voice, the object has something done to it by a subject by use of a passive verb, and the object usually comes before the subject. For example “The active voice is written by Tom” and the focus of the sentence now becomes ‘the active voice’ and not Tom. While the active voice often includes the use of simple verb structure, the passive voice often needs to be aided with auxiliary verb structures to make them understood.

Active or Passive Voice
The following sentences are either active or passive. Can you tell which ones are active and which ones are passive?
- “A computer was purchased by Tom”
- “The cashier gave Tom a receipt”
- “The two girls sat at the table”
- “Dinner is being cooked by mother”
- “Videogames were Tom’s favorite”
- “Book editors love books”
- “The boy was power proofreading his school work”

[UVA2B]

I'm struggling here to see the point...and in a what are my chances thread? What were you avoiding doing when you wrote this?

[mjb447]

I'm struggling here to see the point...and in a what are my chances thread? What were you avoiding doing when you wrote this?

Probably just a gentle reminder that it's "What are my chances of getting into X School of Law" and not "What are the chances that X School of Law will be gotten into by me?" Thanks, OP!

[jb111]

This post seemed out of place when it was read by me.

[A. Nony Mouse]

This post seemed like a spammer when it was read by me.