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Anna walked the dog. The dog was walked by Anna.
I will do my homework. The homework will be done.
The loud noise shocked William. William was shocked by the loud noise.
What’s the difference between each of those pairs of sentences? One of them is the in active voice
and one of them is in the passive voice. So how can you tell the difference? That’s what this
lesson is all about. Listen carefully because there will be a test at the end of the lesson.
Well,
the active voice and passive voice in English all comes down to the ‘subject’
and the ‘object’ of a sentence. The ‘subject’ is the person or thing doing something.
The ‘object’ is having something done to it. For example, in the sentence ‘Anna walked the dog’,
Anna is the subject because she is doing the action and the dog is the object because
it is having that action done to it. In the sentence ‘I will do my homework’,
the subject is ‘I’ because I am doing the action and the object is ‘my homework’.
In the sentence ‘The loud noise shocked William’, the loud noise is the subject, because it is doing
the action, in this case it is doing the shocking. The object is William because he is being shocked.
A sentence using the active voice can start with the subject, followed by the verb, followed by the
object, followed by the rest of the sentence. For example: ‘Darren lost the book at school’.
The subject is ‘Darren’, the verb is ‘lost’ or ‘to lose’ and the object is ‘the book’.
A sentence using the passive voice is constructed differently. This time, we start with the object,
followed by the verb, followed by the subject. For example: ‘The book was lost by Darren at
school’. Again, the subject is ‘Darren’, the verb is ‘lost’ and the object is ‘the book’.
So now we know the difference between the active voice
and the passive voice. But why do we use them? When constructing basic sentences in English, it
is best to stick to the active voice to make sure that your sentences are clear and direct. However,
beyond that, English speakers will often choose to use the active voice because it emphasises
the person or thing who performs an action. For example: “Isaac achieved an A in his first exam!”
The active voice is the appropriate choice for this sentence because it emphasises the person,
Isaac, who did the action. If we said the same sentence in the passive voice, it would be: “An
A was achieved by Isaac in his first exam”. It’s wordy and it’s not as clear or easy to understand.
However, there are circumstances when the passive voice is more appropriate. For example, when you
want to put the emphasis on the recipient of the action, or on the action itself. For example:
“The dress was handmade by Megan”. This is a common pattern in passive voice sentences in the
past tense: Object, was, the verb, by, subject. ‘The dress’ is the object, ‘handmade’ is the
action and ‘Megan’ is the subject. This puts the dress itself and the action of making it by hand
at the beginning of the sentence, telling the listener that that is the most important part.
Another time you might need to use the passive voice is if you don’t want to include the subject,
or if you don’t know who the subject is. For example: “The bag was stolen on Sunday night”.
Notice how in this sentence, ‘the bag’ is the object as it has
had the action done to it. It has been stolen.
But there is no subject in this sentence because who did the action is unknown or not relevant.
So remember: if the subject is at the beginning of the sentence, followed by the verb,
followed by the object, the sentence is using the active voice. However, if the sentence
begins with the object, followed by the verb, followed by the subject, or if the sentence has
no subject, then it is in the passive voice. Now it’s time for a quiz. I’m going to read
out 3 sentences in the active voice and down in the comments, I would like you to write those
3 sentences using the passive voice. Then, I’m going to give you 3 more sentences in the passive voice
and I would like you to write them using the active voice.
I want you to pause the video in-between all the sentences to allow you the time to write your answer.
There are a few different tenses that I'm gonna use so pay close attention to
the tense that I am saying so that you make sure that you use the same when you change from
active voice and the passive voice, and vice versa. Are you ready? Here we go. First three sentences.
Hopefully that wasn't too difficult. But how many did you get right? Let me know. I can’t wait to
read all of your answers in the comments. If you have a little spare time then why not
come and join me in another lesson. Be sure to come and join me also on social media
where you'll find lots of other free English resources, or come and check out my new website
englishlikeanative.com hopefully see you there sometime soon, take care bye.