ACTIVE and PASSIVE VOICE

Dr. Armando L. Pama

NDMU
Objectives:

At the end of the session the students will be able to:

1. define what active and passive voice are;

2. recognize active and passive verbs/sentences;
3. transform active verbs/sentences into passive verbs/sentences and
vice- versa; and
4. determine when to use them.
 In addition to showing time by their tense,
most verbs can show whether the subject is
performing the action or having the action
performed on it. This quality of a verb is called
VOICE.
There are two voices in English: active and
passive. Only action verbs show voice; linking
verbs do not.
A verb is active if its subject performs the
action; a verb is passive if its action is
performed upon the subject.

ACTIVE: Ken planted a seedling.

PASSIVE: A seedling was planted by Ken.
ACTIVE: Ben respects other people’s culture.
PASSIVE: Other people’s culture is respected
(by Ben).
Using active and passive voice: Once you have learned how to form verbs in
the active and passive voice, you need to know WHEN to use which voice.
There are no firm rules, but good writers follow certain conventions with
regard to voice.
• Use the active voice whenever possible. It is more direct and
economical.
Active: Debbie repaired the dripping faucet.
Passive: The dripping faucet was repaired by Debbie.
• The passive voice has 2 important uses:
To emphasize the receiver of the action rather than the
performer of an action.
To point out the receiver of an action whenever the performer is
not important or not easily identified.
Receiver emphasized:Lori was mystified by
the message.
Performer unknown: A ransom note was
tacked to the door.
Performer unimportant: The potholes will be
repaired soon.
EXERCISE 1: Identify each verb as active or
passive.
1. The signature was obviously forged.
2. The accountant calls his clients.
3. Most of the books have been chosen
by the librarians.
4. The car will have been driven by
several people.
5. The patient was being taken by an
ambulance to the plane.
The Forms of Passive Verbs
Changing from the active to the passive voice alters the form of
the verb. Passive verbs always have two parts.

A passive verb is made from a form of be plus the past participle

of a transitive verb.

Remember that all forms of a verb in the passive voice require

the past participle, regardless of the tense. It is only the helping verb
that changes and thus determines the tense.
The verb BRING in the passive voice
Active Passive
Simple Present: brings/bring is brought
Present Progressive: is bringing is being brought
Present Perfect: has/have brought has/have been
brought
Present Perfect Prog: has/have been bringing has/have been
being brought

Task: Make charts for the past and future tenses

Task: Transform the active sentences into
passive and the passive sentences into active.

1. The signature was obviously forged by somebody.

2. The accountant calls his clients.
3. Most of the books have been chosen by the librarians.
4. The car will have been driven by several people.
5. The patient was being taken by an ambulance to the plane.
6. The delivery boy will bring the flowers.
7. The weeds had already been pulled by the gardener before he
was told not to.
Task: Transform the active sentences into
passive sentences.
1. John collects money.
2. Anna opened the window.
3. We have done our homework.
4. I will ask a question.
5. He can cut out the picture.
6. The sheep ate a lot.
7. We do not clean our rooms.
8. William will not repair the car.
9. Did Sue draw this circle?
10.Could you feed the dog?
Assignment

Copy a short news/journal article where sentences are

in active voice and transform these sentences into
passive voice.
Reference:

Forlini, G., Bauer, M., Biener, L. , et al. (2010). Grammar and

composition 2. Jurong, Singapore: Pearson Education South Asia
Pte Ltd.
Thank you.