Passive Voice: A letter (object) was written by him (subject) to his family.Īctive Voice: He (subject) wrote a letter (object) to his family. Switching the position of the object and subject will change the sentence to active voice. Position of subject and object: The position of the subject and the object in a passive sentence are often switched, with the object placed before the verb and the subject placed after. To change a sentence from passive to active, first determine what makes the sentence passive, and then apply one of the following rules: How to change passive voice to active voice Passive Voice: The entire cake was eaten (past participle) by himself. The verb form can determine if a sentence is active or passive.Īctive Voice: He ate (past tense verb) the entire cake by himself. Passive Voice: The fire was extinguished in less than an hour. The subject does not need to be directly identified when using passive voice. Passive Voice: The fence (object) was jumped over by the dog (subject). Interchanging the object and subject determines if a sentence is active or passive.Īctive Voice: The dog (subject) jumped over the fence (object). Passive Voice: object + to be + past participle verb + subject (optional) The placement of the subject, verb, and object determines if a sentence is active or passive. General rules for active and passive voice include the following: The museum is visited each year by hundreds of tourists. The confused customer was helped at the store. The letters were delivered by her yesterday.Īt least two new employees will be hired by the company. Hundreds of tourists visit the museum each year.īelow are examples of sentences written with a passive voice: The salesman helped the confused customer at the store. The company will hire at least two new employees. The following are examples of active voice sentences: To describe a condition in which the actor is unknown or unimportantĮvery year, thousands of people are diagnosed as having cancer.Below are two lists of example sentences written in both the active and passive voice. The procedures were somehow misinterpreted. After long debate, the proposal was endorsed by. The data processing department recently presented what proved to be a controversial proposal to expand its staff. To keep the subject and focus consistent throughout a passage To emphasize the action rather than the actorĪfter long debate, the proposal was endorsed by the long-range planning committee. There are sometimes good reasons to use the passive voice. If the subject of the sentence is somewhat anonymous, see if you can use a general term, such as “researchers,” or “the study,” or “experts in this field.”.Rewrite the sentence so that the subject buried in the “by” clause is closer to the beginning of the sentence. If you find one, the sentence may be in the passive voice. Look for a “by” phrase (e.g., “by the dog” in the last example above).Here are some tips and strategies for converting sentences from the passive to the active voice. Passive: It was earlier demonstrated that heart attacks can be caused by high stress. Passive: It is believed by the candidate that a ceiling must be placed on the budget by Congress.Īctive: Researchers earlier showed that high stress can cause heart attacks. In a sentence written in the passive voice, the subject receives the action.Īctive: The candidate believes that Congress must place a ceiling on the budget. In a sentence written in the active voice, the subject of sentence performs the action. Passive voice sentences often use more words, can be vague, and can lead to a tangle of prepositional phrases. Generally, try to use the active voice whenever possible.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |