Everyone uses active and passive voice everyday, but most people still can't differentiate the difference between active and passive voice.On this opportunity i will try to explain what i know about active and passive voice.
What Is Active Voice?
I'll start with active voice because it's simpler. In an active sentence, the subject object of the sentence. is doing the action. A straightforward example is the sentence "Steve loves Amy." Steve is the subject, and he is doing the action: he loves Amy, the
Another example is the title of the Marvin Gaye song “I Heard It through the Grapevine.” "I" is the subject, the one who is doing the action. "I" is hearing "it," the object of the sentence.
What Is Passive Voice?
In passive voice, the target of the action gets promoted to the subject position. Instead of saying, "Steve loves Amy," I would say, "Amy is loved by Steve." The subject of the sentence becomes Amy, but she isn't doing anything. Rather, she is just the recipient of Steve's love. The focus of the sentence has changed from Steve to Amy.
If you wanted to make the title of the Marvin Gaye song passive, you would say “It was heard by me through the grapevine,” not such a catchy title anymore.
Is "To Be" a Sign of a Passive Sentence?
A lot of people think all sentences that contain a form of the verb “to be” are in passive voice, but that isn't true. For example, the sentence "I am holding a pen" is in active voice, but it uses the verb “am,” which is a form of “to be.” The passive form of that sentence is "The pen is being held by me."
Notice that the subject, the pen, isn't doing anything in that sentence. It's not taking an action; it's passive. One clue that your sentence is passive is that the subject isn't taking a direct action.
The active voice is the "normal" voice. This is the voice that we use most of the time. You are probably already familiar with the active voice. In the active voice, the object receives the action of the verb:
active | subject | verb | object |
> | |||
Cats | eat | fish. |
The passive voice is less usual. In the passive voice, the subject receives the action of the verb:
passive | subject | verb | object |
< | |||
Fish | are eaten | by cats. |
The object of the active verb becomes the subject of the passive verb:
subject | verb | object | |
active | Everybody | drinks | water. |
passive | Water | is drunk | by everybody. |
SIMPLE PRESENT and SIMPLE PAST
The active object becomes the passive subject.
am/is/are + past participle
was/were + past participle
PRESENT and PAST CONTINUOUS (PROGRESSIVE)
Passive form:
am/is/are + being + past participle
was/were + being + past participle
PRESENT PERFECT, PAST PERFECT and FUTURE PERFECT
Passive form:
have/has been + past participle
had been + past participle
FUTURE TENSES
Passive forms: will + be + past participle
is/are going to be + past participle
PRESENT / FUTURE MODALS
The passive form follows this pattern:
modal + be + past participle
PAST MODALS
The past passive form follows this pattern:
modal + have been + past participle
Construction of the Passive Voice
The structure of the passive voice is very simple:
subject + auxiliary verb (be) + main verb (past participle)
The main verb is always in its past participle form.
Look at these examples:
subject | auxiliary verb (to be) | main verb (past participle) | ||
Water | is | drunk | by everyone. | |
100 people | are | employed | by this company. | |
I | am | paid | in euro. | |
We | are | not | paid | in dollars. |
Are | they | paid | in yen |
Conjugation for the Passive Voice
We can form the passive in any tense. In fact, conjugation of verbs in the passive tense is rather easy, as the main verb is always in past participle form and the auxiliary verb is always be. To form the required tense, we conjugate the auxiliary verb. So, for example:
- present simple: It is made
- present continuous: It is being made
- present perfect: It has been made
Here are some examples with most of the possible tenses:
infinitive | to be washed | |
simple | present | It is washed. |
past | It was washed. | |
future | It will be washed. | |
conditional | It would be washed. | |
continuous | present | It is being washed. |
past | It was being washed. | |
future | It will be being washed. | |
conditional | It would be being washed. | |
perfect simple | present | It has been washed. |
past | It had been washed. | |
future | It will have been washed. | |
conditional | It would have been washed. | |
perfect continuous | present | It has been being washed. |
past | It had been being washed. | |
future | It will have been being washed. | |
conditional | It would have been being washed. |
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