Passive tense allows us to put someone or something that is not the actor first in a sentence - in the position of the subject. This dilutes the power of a sentence. It makes weak, passive sentences that are harder to read.
The cat was chased. (by the dog) - passive
The dog chased the cat - active.
We can use passive tense without the actor if the actor is not important or not known.
The Mona Lisa was painted in the 16th century.
Help! The post office has been robbed!
Passive voice allows us to leave the actor until the end of the sentence, if the actor is important.
The painting is very valuable, it was painted by Van Gogh.
To form a passive sentence, use a form of be + past particle, for example: is used, was eaten, is being asked:
The road is being built this year.
Passive tense allows us to put someone or something that is not the actor first in a sentence - in the position of subject.
The cat was chased. (by the dog) - passive
The dog chased the cat - active.
We use the passive tense without the actor if the actor is not important or not known.
The Mona Lisa was painted in the 16th century.
Help! The post office has been robbed!
The passive allows us to leave the actor until the end of the sentence, if the actor is important.
The painting is very valuable, it was painted by Van Gogh.
To form a passive sentence:
be +past particle. eg is used/was eaten / is being asked
The road is being built this year.
Passive voice does not include words like I, you, we, and us
Passive sentence: Mary was tricked by the street vendor selling fake famous purses.
Active sentence: The street vendor selling fake famous purses tricked Mary.
Passive: The test was taken by 100 students.
Active: One hundred students took the test.
The passive voice is most often used in report writing to avoid the use of the first person singular. It is seen as better to say "The chemical was then diluted" rather than "I then diluted the chemical". It's less personal than "I did this, I did that".
However, the best time to use the passive is when you don't know who did it. A newspaper report might say, for example, "the house was broken into" or "the bank was robbed" (in the Passive Voice) because the culprit (subject) is not known.
If you know who did it, it is better to say "Three masked bandits robbed the bank" (Active Voice) rather than "the bank was robbed BY three masked bandits" (Passive Voice). The Active Voice is stronger and more immediate.
The passive is often used when writing about a process eg.
The tea leaves are picked. Then they are washed, sorted and dried. The dried tea is then packed.
The passive voice is always acceptable, although it is essential to use it in the following cases:
When the identity of the performer is unknown or conceled
When the object is emphasized
When the performer of the action is unimportant
Use of the passive in other cases may weaken your sentence, as it is more indirect and also more verbose, but this may be exactly what you are looking for. Let discretion be your guide.
A sentence with a passive voice is one where the action is done to the subject, rather than the subject doing the action. An example is, "The book was laid on the table."
My friend was detained last week by the police, simply because he is Latino. APEX
The students considered topics for the next essay
The sentence "Sentences can be written in active and passive voices" is a declarative sentence written in passive voice.
No this sentence is not passive voice.
This sentence can't be changed into a passive voice.
"The tornado warning scared you." is active voice. "You were scared by the tornado warning." is passive voice.
To put that sentence in passive voice, you would say, "The joker was laughed at by them." (It's a good example of why you should most often not use the passive voice.)
The sentence "Sentences can be written in active and passive voices" is a declarative sentence written in passive voice.
No this sentence is not passive voice.
No, "He is a boy" is not in passive voice. Passive voice involves rearranging the sentence to emphasize the receiver of the action rather than the doer, which would change the sentence to something like "The boy is being called."
"The road was closed by the police due to an accident" is a sentence that uses the passive voice.
In passive voice, "Our" can be used as the subject of a sentence when the active voice sentence is intransitive. For example, in active voice: "We completed the project." In passive voice: "The project was completed by us."
The sentence "The potholes on our street will be repaired" has a verb in the passive voice ("will be repaired").
To change passive voice to active voice, identify the object of the passive sentence and make it the subject of the active sentence. Then, identify the subject of the passive sentence and make it the object of the active sentence. Finally, rewrite the sentence using the active verb form. For example, "The book was read by John" (passive) can be changed to "John read the book" (active).
No, this sentence is in the active voice. In passive voice, it would be "The tree was planted."
No, neither part of the sentence is in passive voice.
In active voice, the subject of the sentence performs the action, while in passive voice, the subject is acted upon by the verb. Active voice is generally more direct and engaging, while passive voice is often used to shift the focus onto the recipient of the action.
This sentence is in the passive voice. In active voice, it would be "The teacher confiscated the toy."
This sentence can't be written in passive voice. If the verb in the sentence does not have an object, you can't make the sentence passive. A passive voice sentence using some of the words would be, "The garden is going to be cleaned by the gardener." The active voice form would be, "The gardener is going to clean the garden." In this sentence, the subject is "gardener" and the object is 'garden."