What are Active and Passive Voice? Know the Difference and Examples

What are active and passive voices? In a sentence, voice is essentially the relationship between the action verb and the participants. There are two voices in grammar: active and passive. Active voice occurs when the subject does the action, while passive voice occurs when the subject receives the action. Both voices have specific uses depending on the context.  For example, an active voice sentence is ‘I eat food,’ which can be changed to passive voice as ‘The food is eaten by me.’ 

Now we can clearly see the difference. The first sentence is direct and simple, with ‘I’ as the subject performing the action. In contrast, the other sentence is not only indirect but also longer than the previous one. The object ‘food’ in the first sentence becomes the subject in the second. 

The right use of active voice and passive voice is the most important aspect of being a writer. When you are able to differentiate when, why, and where to use them, you are one step closer to being a good writer and a speaker.

What are active voice and & passive voice?

Now we will try to understand all the aspects of voice with a more precise explanation, and with the help of an example.

The structure of sentences matters a lot because, with that only you represent your point of view, and the formation of the sentence helps the readers to get what the writer wants to convey without any misinterpretation.

Active voice is a form of verb that shows the importance of the doer in it; all the important things revolve around the doer, and the doer is the subject. When you want to emphasize on doer, you use the active voice, and it shifts all the attention from the work done to the worker. These sentences are direct and simple and convey a simpler meaning of a sentence without any complication.

Examples of active voice 

I want to go home.

I am working on an article nowadays.

By these examples, we can understand how simply the writer had expressed his thoughts and made the doer the hero and the work less important.

Passive voice, at the same time, is the form of a verb that shows the importance of the work done. When the writer wants to make a point where the subject is neglected, he uses the passive voice form. The sentences in it are long and indirect.

Examples

The work is done by me.

He is helped by me.

 By these examples, we can understand how a passive-constructed sentence has more words in it in comparison with the active voice. They are long and indirect, and the main element is the work, not the doer.

What is the difference between active voice and passive voice?-

Every form of verb in grammar has its own uses. The active voice states a simpler and more direct meaning, and the passive voice conveys a longer, indirect meaning. Passive voice is more verbose than active voice, and not making a direct point when a writer wants to make a strong point, he uses active voice, which helps in making direct and strong commands. When you are writing a blog, caption, or article, you should use active forms because it is more impressive.

Passive voice, at the same time, is a more object-oriented form of verbs. Sometimes there are some works which are more important than the doer, and all the limelight should be on the result rather than the doer. These are not very frequently used types; generally, most of the time active voice is used because they have a simpler structure and is easier to understand who performed the action and what the emotion of the sentence. 

Should you write active voice or the passive voice?

It is very simple to understand whether you should use an active voice or passive voice, like a writer decides what type of tone he wants to set in his sentences and makes the decision according to it.    

Uses of the active voice

Active voice is used in day-to-day talking and making a direct command without any complication. 

Active voices are used to make writing clearer and direct. When the writer wants to make its writing more engaging, they use an active voice because it conveys a powerful and direct meaning.

While writing an artistic work, an active form is a more popular form to use because it decreases the chance of misinterpretation, helps the reader to engage more with the writer’s thought, and makes it impressive and easy to understand.    

Uses of passive voice 

The most common point of its use is when the doer is unknown; we use the passive form. To make the writing more official and professional, we use it. There are some results which are more important than the doer, for example, in any scientific finding or in any research report, the outcome is more important than the doer, so in these kinds of reports, we use the passive form.

Sometimes, to sound a little polite or not to point directly towards the doer, we use the passive form. Sometimes, there are some doers that are self-explanatory and not important to get mentioned there; passive verbs are used. 

How to change active voice to passive voice 

There are some grammatical rules to change the active voice to the passive voice. First, we have to find what the components are, for example, the subject one who is performing the action, the action verb, and lastly the object, which is going to be the subject of the passive voice sentence.

When you start writing, you should read your sentences and get an idea of what kind of tone you want to set in your writing. For example, if you find your sentence losing the point of writing or not hitting the right meaning, then you can shift from one voice to another.

If you want to make your writing more crisp, you can use the active form, but if at any time your sentence sounds awkward, you can change it voice by just identifying the noun that is going to be your subject and what is the priority of your writing, your doer or your work.

 “The marketing team creates a detailed report every month to track the company’s growth.”

  In this sentence, we can see the important and emphasized component is the marketing team, which is doing the work of making reports, and the object of their work is the growth of the company. They are performing the action of making the report.

Now it depends on the writer what his priority is, whom he wants to make the subject, or which aspect of the sentence he wants to convey. 

If he wants the team to  get the main position, then he can use active form and convey the direct meaning, and if he wants the work to be the main component, then he can change the sentence into passive voice by just making the object, subject of the sentence and making other grammatical changes like-

“Detailed reports are created every month by the team to track the company’s growth.”

Examples 

Active voice: I write a letter.

Passive voice: A letter is written by me.

Active voice: The teacher explains the lesson.

Passive voice: The lesson is explained by the teacher.

There are some other sentence types, like exclamatory, imperative, and interrogative sentences, that can also be made in both voices. 

Active voice: What a beautiful song she sings 

Passive voice: What a beautiful song is sung by her.

Active voice; open the door

Passive voice: Let the door be opened.