Active and Passive Voice

We need to remember that there are 2 main ways in which to

express an idea: in the active voice, and the passive voice.

The active voice emphasizes the subject that performs an action;

the subject is a lot more important than the action:

 Queen Elizabeth delivered pizzas to the Children’s Hospital.

The passive voice emphasizes the object that experiences an

action:

 A giant pizza was delivered today to the Children’s

Hospital.

How do we form the passive voice?

It is fairly easy. We need some form of the verb “to be” (are,
were, was, been, will be, etc.) combined with a verb in its past
participle form:

 My phone and purse were stolen this morning

 The package will be delivered to your house on Monday.
 They hadn’t been invited to Jessica’s birthday party.
 Pearl Harbor was attacked by the Japanese in 1941.