In English grammar, voice doesn't mean the sound you make when you speak. It shows whether the subject is doing the action, or having the action done to it.
ACTIVE VOICE
The verb is in the active voice when the subject does the action.
Example: A cat ate the fish (Subject:cat/ Verb: ate/Object: fish)
Here, the doer of the action is the cat and the verb ate is in the active voice.
When action is done to the subject, the verb is in the passive voice . The previous object (fish) is now used as the subject
Example: The fish was eaten by a cat. (Verb: eaten, Subject : fish)
Here, action is done to the subject, and the verb "was eaten" is in the passive voice.
USE OF THE THE PASSIVE VOICE
We use the action voice whenever we can.
We use the passive when:
* We want to make the active object more important
* We do not know the active subject
* We prefer not naming
Note that we always use by to introduce the passive object.
Example: Fish are eaten by cats
We use 'by' only when we have to
VERBS WITH TWO OBJECTS
A verb can have two objects- a person and a thing. Such a verb can have two possible passive voices.
Example 1:
Active: The salesmen shows Nick a new computer./ The salesmen shows a new computer to Nick.
Passive: Nick is shown a new computer. / A new computer is shown to Nick
Example 2:
Active: We lent Bob some money./ We lent some money to Bob.
Passive: Bob was lent some money. / Some money was lent to Bob.
CHANGING ACTIVE TO PASSIVE
In changing a sentence from active voice to one in passive voice, we make the object of the passive
voice sentence the subject of the passive voice sentence.
The verb used in a passive voice sentence is formed by adding the past participle to "to be" (am, is, are, was, were, has been, have been, will be, etc.)
Passive verbs have the same tenses (simple present tense, present continuous tense, present perfect tense, etc as the active verbs.)
Only verbs which take on an object can be changed to the passive.
Examples: He runs away. (This sentence has no object, so it's not possible to turn it into a passive sentence.)
Here are the examples of sentences in active voice and passive voice in the present tense.
Examples of sentences in active voice and their equivalent sentence in the passive voice in the past tense are shown in this table.
Will /Can / Must / Have to etc. + be + Past Participle
VIDEO OF PASSIVE VOICE LESSON
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