WW1: Lesson - Passive Voice vs. Active Voice

Image: Sign posts point in different directions. One reads "Passive" while the other reads "Active"Passive Voice vs. Active Voice

As you learned in the previous lesson on Parallel Structure, one of the best ways to improve your writing is to make your sentences clear, concise, and balanced. Another key skill you can use is to utilize active voice. Active voice is when the subject of the sentence carries out the action. Here is an example of a sentence written in active voice:

  • The students participated in the small group seminar, which greatly enriched the discussion.

In this sentence, the students functions as the subject, and the subject takes the verb participated. You can ask yourself: What subject is participating? The students are.

Passive Voice

Passive voice happens when a subject is moved out of its usual position before the verb. That subject can either be re-written as a preposition phrase with by or omitted entirely. Here is the same sentence, but written in passive voice.

  • The discussion was greatly enriched by the students participating in the small group seminar.
    • Notice the following:
      • the students are still participating in a discussion but have been turned into a prepositional phrase with "by"
      • the sentence is wordier
      • the sentence could be more confusing when written this way 

Comparing Active and Passive and State of Being Verbs

With active voice sentences, the subject typically comes at the beginning of a clause. With passive voice sentences, the subject usually comes in the middle of a clause, and is often preceded by is, am, are, was, were verbs. However, just because a sentence uses one of these verbs does not mean the sentence is written in passive voice. Sometimes these verbs function as state of being verbs because they describe what a noun is like. Take a look at the following example:

  • The students were excited because of the small group seminar.

In this sentence, the students functions as the subject; were excited describes how the students felt because of the seminar. Excited is an adjective describing the students' state of being and is connected to the subject by the linking verb were.

Additional Examples

The following examples will provide a few different sentences written in both passive and active voice. Compare the two carefully to take note of common passive voice constructions and how to change them to the active voice.

  • Passive Voice:
    • The mouse was eaten by the cat.
      • Who ate the mouse? The cat did.
  • Active Voice:
    • The cat ate the mouse.

The following compares an example of the passive voice with a sentence written with a state of being verb. Remember, am, is, are, was and were do not necessarily indicate the use of the passive voice.

  • Passive Voice:
    • The policies of the new government were strongly opposed by the public.
  • State of Being Verb:
    • The policies of the new government were effective in bringing about change.

How would you re-write the first sentence to change it to active voice? The actor in the sentence is the public, so you would start the sentence with that:

  • The public strongly opposed the policies of the new government.

Video Lesson

The following video explores passive vs. active voice; be sure to take notes on the the examples. Pause the video to complete any practice activities.

Practice Activity

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