Active and Passive Voice What it is? How to use it? What do I need to know?

What it is? 2 There are two ways to express an action of a subject in relation to its object: Active VoicePassive Voice The subject performs the action denoted by the verb The subject is no longer active, but is, instead, being acted upon by the verb e.g. Marilyn mailed the letter Marilyn (subject) is doing the mailing (verb). e.g. The letter was mailed by Marilyn. The letter(subject) was being mailed (verb)

The active voice is mostly used in writing because it gives a direct and more concise meaning. Passive voice is used sometimes due to the following reasons… Active and Passive Voice The normal structure of an PASSIVE voice sentence is object + verb + subject The normal structure of an ACTIVE voice sentence is subject + verb + object

How can you tell if a sentence is active? Ask yourself, "Who/What does the action?" If the answer is clear, the sentence is active. Cindy is jumping the rope Who is jumping the rope? Cindy

Passive Voice reasons 1. The actor is unknown: e.g. The cave paintings of Lascaux were made in the Upper Old Stone Age. [We don't know who made them.] 2. The actor is irrelevant: e.g. An experimental solar power plant will be built in the Australian desert. [We are not interested in who is building it.] 5

6 Passive Voice reasons 3. You want to be vague about who is responsible: e.g. Mistakes were made. [Common in bureaucratic writing!] 4. You are talking about a general truth: e.g. Rules are made to be broken. [By whomever, whenever.]

7 Passive Voice reasons 5. You want to emphasize the person or thing acted on. For example, it may be your main topic: e.g. Insulin was first discovered in 1921 by researchers at the University of Toronto. It is still the only treatment available for diabetes.

Thank you! 8

REFERENCES 1.Hashemi, L. Murphy, R. (2006). English Grammar in Use Supplmentary Exercises. UK: Cambridge University Press. Newbrook, J. Wilson, J. Acklam, R.. (2008). FCE Gold Plus Coursebook. England: Pearson Longman. 2.Newbrook, J. Wilson, J. Acklam, R.. (2008). FCE Gold Plus Coursebook. England: Pearson Longman. 3.Hashemi, L. Murphy, R. (2006). English Grammar in Use Supplmentary Exercises. UK: Cambridge University Press. 4.Fuchs, M. Bonner, M.. (2001). Grammar Express For self study and Classroom use. NY: Longman. 5.University of Toronto editing/passive-voice 6.Townson University 7.Parrott, M. (2010). Grammar for English Language Teachers. (2 edition). Italy: Cambridge University Press.