Passive and active voice Verbs are also said to be either active or passive in voice, which it means english

verbs have two voices: active voice and passive voice. Active voice The active voice is the normal voice, where the subject and verb relationship is straightforward (person acting is clear) in the other hand the subject is doing the action. eg. I write a letter I help you We love our country I broke the window The boys ate all the pie Structure: Subject + first form of the verb + object The most common reasons to use active voice are: The active voice is shorter and more direct. The active voice is less awkward and clearly states relationship between subject and action. The active voice sentence pattern propels the reader forward through your writing thus avoiding weak prose.

Passive voice The passive voice is less usual than the active voice, the subject of the sentence is acted upon by some other agent or by something unnamed (it is not specified who is acting). A letter is written by me/ A letter is written You are helped by me/ You are helped/ Our country is loved by us/ Our country is loved The window was broken/ The window was broken by me All the pie was eaten/ All of the pie was eaten by me Structure: Object of the active sentence + is/am/are/was/were + past participle form of the verb + by + subject of the active sentence Notice that when a sentence is written in the passive voice, the agent of an action can be omitted. That is part of the appeal of the passive voice to certain

writers. If the writer wishes to obscure responsibility for an action, then the passive voice allows him to eliminate all reference to the person who committed the act. The most common reasons to use passive voice are: The agent (doer) of the action is unimportant, the agent is unknown The agent is common knowledge, and mentioning it would be redundant, the writer desires to control focus of sentences and could be for 2 reasons. 1. To de-emphasize the agents role in the action (when it is more important to draw our attention to the person or thing acted upon). 2. To emphasize the party receiving the action (When the actor in the situation is not important). General Rule Normally, only those verbs can be passivized which have an object. Such verbs are called Transitive verbs i.e verbs with objects. It is noticed when the verb is changed from the active voice to the Passive voice, the Object of the transitive verb in the active voice becomes the subject of the verb in the Passive voice. Tense Simple present Active Voice Take Takes Present Continuous Am taking Is taking Are taking Present perfect Has taken Have take Simple past took Past continuos Past perfect Simple future Notes: Is we say before, the object of the active verb becomes the subject of the passive verb. Therefore, sentences which do not have an object cannot be changed into the passive. The following sentences, for instance, cannot be changed into the passive because they do not have objects. The old man sat in a corner. The child sleeps. The wind blows. The dog barks. Was taking Were taking Had taken Will take Passive Voice Is taken Are taken Is being taken Are being taken Has been taken Have been taken Was taken Ware taken Was being taken Were being taken Had been taken Will be taken

The fire burns. He laughed aloud. Modals Should take Can take Colud take May take Migth take Must take Ought to take Should be taken Can be taken Could be taken May be taken Might be taken Must be taken Ought to be taken

Some more rules You may have to use an appropriate preposition like by before the passive object whenever it is mentioned. By me By us By you By him By her By it By them When we change a sentence from active voice to passive voice, the tense of the verb remains the same.

I We You He She It They

-The man must have eaten five hamburgers- Active Subject + first form of the verb + object -Five hamburgers have been eaten by the man- Passive Object of the active sentence + is/am/are/was/were/others + past participle form of the verb + by + subject of the active sentence -Marilyn mailed the letter- Active -The letter was mailed by Marilyn The verb has to agree with the subject of the sentence.

-Children cannot open these bottles easily- Active -These bottles+ cannot be opened by the children- Passive

Use passive voice sparingly Passive voice is still appropriate for some sentences. However, business writers should use the passive voice very sparingly. It may make the writing unclear by keeping the identity of the actor secret. Passive voice is also a poor choice for sentences because it often sounds awkward and evasive. Readers may interpret passive voice as an attempt to avoid admitting responsibility, as in the following example: eg "A mistake was made that resulted in an overcharge to your account that has now been corrected and will be shown on your next statement." Active voice is more direct and concise than passive voice. Active voice sounds more responsible: eg "Our data entry clerk made a mistake and overcharged your account, but she corrected the entry. Your next statement will show the correction." Usually use passive voice when you do not know the actor, you want to hide the identity of the actor, or the actor is not important to the meaning of the sentence. Changing passive voice to active voice To change passive voice to active, identify the performer of the action. If the performer is in a "by the" phrase, move the performer to the subject position, just before the verb. If the writer did not name a performer, choose a subject that fits the context. eg. "The test results will be announced next week, by us". -the performer is in the sentence We will announce the test results next week. "The test results will be announced next week". -the writer did not name a performer, then we can choose a subject "The researchers will announce the test results next week." One further caution about the passive voice: we should not mix active and passive constructions in the same sentence:

eg. "The executive committee approved the new policy, and the calendar for next year's meetings was revised" Should be recast as "The executive committee approved the new policy and revised the calendar for next year's meeting." Particularities The passive voice is especially helpful (and even regarded as mandatory) in scientific or technical writing or lab reports, where the actor is not really important but the process or principle being described is of ultimate importance. eg. I poured 20 cc of acid into the beaker -Active voice Twenty cc of acid is/was poured into the beaker -Passive voice The passive voice is also useful when describing, say, a mechanical process in which the details of process are much more important than anyone's taking responsibility for the action. eg. The first coat of primer paint is applied immediately after the acid rinse We use the passive voice to good effect in a paragraph in which we wish to shift emphasis from what was the object in a first sentence to what becomes the subject in subsequent sentences The executive committee approved an entirely new policy for dealing with academic suspension and withdrawal. The policy had been written by a subcommittee on student behavior. If students withdraw from course work before suspension can take effect, the policy states, a mark of "IW" The paragraph is clearly about this new policy so it is appropriate that policy move from being the object in the first sentence to being the subject of the second sentence. The passive voice allows for this transition.

Construction of the Passive Voice Tip 1 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 Water 100 people I We Are Tip 2 The passive forms of a verb are created by combining a form of the "to be verb" with the past participle of the main verb. Other helping verbs are also sometimes present: eg: The measure could have been killed in committee The passive can be used, also, in various tenses. Let's take a look at the passive forms of "design. auxiliary verb (to be) is are am are they main verb participle) drunk employed paid not paid paid (past by everyone. by this company. in euro. in dollars. in yen?

Tense
Present Present perfect Past Past perfect Future Future perfect Present progressive Past progressive

Subject
The car/cars The car/cars The car/cars The car/cars The car/cars The car/cars The car/cars The car/cars

Auxiliary Singular Plural

is has been was had been will be will have been is being was being are have been were had been will be will have been are being were being

Past Participle
designed. designed. designed. designed. designed. designed. designed. designed.

Also, when an active sentence with an indirect object is recast in the passive, the indirect object can take on the role of subject in the passive sentence: Active: Professor Villa gave Jorge an A. Passive: An A was given to gorge by professor Villa Passive: Jorge was given an A Only transitive verbs (those that take objects) can be transformed into passive constructions. Furthermore, active sentences containing certain verbs cannot

be transformed into passive structures. To have is the most important of these verbs. eg. We can say: He has a new car We cannot say: A new car is had by him Note: 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. Tip 3 The passive voice requires a "double verb" and will always consist of a form of the verb "to be" and the past participle (usually the "en/ed/t" form) of another verb. Example: is kicked Writers should be familiar with the forms of "to be" so that they can easily identify the passive voice in their work. Review the forms of "to be": am, is, are, was, were, be, being, been Note the forms of "to be" in the examples of the verb "to kick" in various forms of the passive voice: is kicked----------------had been kicked. was kicked-------------is going to be kicked. is being kicked---------will be kicked. has been kicked-------can be kicked. was being kicked------should be kicked. Often passive voice sentences will contain a "by" phrase indicting who or what performed the action. Passive sentences can be easily transformed into active sentences when the object of the preposition "by" is moved to the subject position in the sentence. Passive: The cookies were eaten by the children. Active: The children ate the cookies. Passive: The tunnels are dug by the gophers. Active: The gophers dug the tunnels. Tip 4 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 simple to be washed It is washed. It was washed. It will be washed. It would be washed. It is being washed. It was being washed. It will be being washed. It would be being washed. It has been washed. It had been washed. It will have been washed. It would have been washed. It has been being washed. It had been being washed. It will have been being washed. It would have been being washed.

present past future conditional continuous present past future conditional perfect simple present past future conditional perfect continuous present past future conditional

We can say: Josefina lacked finesse We cannot say: Finesse was lacked Here is a brief list of such verbs resemble look like equal agree with mean contain hold comprise lack suit fit become