1. Active Voice
When writing sentences, paragraphs, or essays, students should always try to write in the ACTIVE VOICE. Active voice occurs when the subject of the sentence is doing the action implied by the verb. It is first important to be able to recognize a subject and verb of the sentence. These two parts of a sentence will indicate whether or not you have active voice.

2. Jim learned to ski while on vacation in Colorado.
Active Voice
Ex.:
Jim learned to ski while on vacation in Colorado.
Subject:
Verb:
What are the subject and verb?

3. Active Voice Subject: JIM Verb: LEARNED Ex.:
Jim learned to ski while on vacation in Colorado.
Subject: JIM
Verb: LEARNED

4. Jim learned to ski while on vacation in Colorado.
Active Voice
Ex.:
Jim learned to ski while on vacation in Colorado.
Subject: JIM
Verb: LEARNED
We then ask ourselves, “What action is implied by the verb?”

5. Jim learned to ski while on vacation in Colorado.
Active Voice
Ex.:
Jim learned to ski while on vacation in Colorado.
Subject: JIM
Verb: LEARNED
“Learned” implies the act of
______________.

6. Jim learned to ski while on vacation in Colorado.
Active Voice
Ex.:
Jim learned to ski while on vacation in Colorado.
Subject: JIM
Verb: LEARNED
“Learned” implies the act of
learning ____ .

7. Jim learned to ski while on vacation in Colorado.
The subject of the sentence, Jim, is doing the action, learning. This means the sentence is active voice.
IMPORTANT:
Do not think strictly of the verb itself, but of the action it implies. If the subject is doing the action of the verb, you have active voice.

8. Passive Voice
The alternative to active voice is PASSIVE VOICE. Passive voice is when the subject is being acted upon by some other person, place, or thing, and is therefore not doing the action the verb indicates.

9. Skiing was learned by Jim while on vacation in Colorado.
Passive Voice
Ex.:
Skiing was learned by Jim while on vacation in Colorado.
Subject:
Verb:
What are the subject and verb?

10. Skiing was learned by Jim while on vacation in Colorado.
Passive Voice
Ex.:
Skiing was learned by Jim while on vacation in Colorado.
Subject: SKIING
Verb: WAS LEARNED

11. Active and Passive Voice
Active: Jim learned to ski while on vacation in Colorado. Subject: Jim Verb: learned Passive: Skiing was learned by Jim while on vacation in Colorado. Subject: Skiing verb: was learned In both cases, “learning” is the action implied by the verb.

12. Also, any sentence in which is, am, are, was, or were is the main verb will always be passive voice.
For example:
We are happy to be on vacation.
Are, the verb of this third example sentence, is the main (only) verb, so the sentence is passive voice. It is called a LINKING VERB. Some other common linking verbs are become, appear, seem, look, sound, taste – all depending on how they are used, of course!

13. Are, the verb of this third example sentence, is the main (only) verb, so the sentence is passive voice. It is called a LINKING VERB. Some other common linking verbs are become, appear, seem, look, sound, taste – all depending on how they are used, of course!
Active: We tasted the food. (Think  “we,” the subject, is actually tasting something.)
Passive: The food tasted awful. (Think  “Food,” the subject, is not tasting anything.)
Active: The man appeared out of the fog.
Passive: The man appeared confused.
Active: She looked through the binoculars.
Passive: She looked happy on her birthday.
Try to understand these differences!