Active voice and Passive Voice
There are two special forms for verbs called voice:
1. Active
voice
2. Passive
voice
The active voice is the “normal” voice. This is the voice
that we use most of the time. A feature of sentences in which the subject
performs the action of the verb and the direct object is the goal or the recipient.
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Example:
The teacher teaches the students.
Subject doing action verb object receiving action
Karma washes the dishes.
Subject doing action verb object receiving action
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Example:
The students are taught by the teacher
Subject receiving action passive verb doing action
The dishes are washed by Rigsel
Subject receiving action passive verb doing action
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In passive sentences, the thing receiving the action is the subject of the sentence and
the thing doing the action is optionally included near the end of the sentence. You can
use the passive form if you think that the thing receiving the action is more important or should be emphasized. You can also use the passive form if you do not want to mention who is doing the action.
Examples:
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Tense
|
Subject
|
verb
|
Object
|
|
|
Simple
Present
|
Active:
|
Karma
|
writes
|
a letter.
|
|
Passive:
|
A letter
|
is written
|
by Karma
|
|
|
Simple
Past
|
Active:
|
Karma
|
wrote
|
a letter
|
|
Passive:
|
A letter
|
was written
|
by Karma
|
|
|
Present
Perfect
|
Active:
|
Karma
|
has written
|
a letter.
|
|
Passive:
|
A letter
|
has been
written
|
by Karma
|
|
|
Future I
|
Active:
|
Karma
|
will write
|
a letter.
|
|
Passive:
|
A letter
|
will be
written
|
by Karma
|
|
|
Present
Continuous
|
Active:
|
Karma
|
is writing
|
a letter
|
|
Passive:
|
A letter
|
is being
written
|
by Karma
|
|
|
Past
Continuous
|
Active:
|
Karma
|
was writing
|
a letter
|
|
Passive:
|
A letter
|
was being
written
|
by Karma
|
|
|
Past perfect
|
Active:
|
Karma
|
had written
|
a letter
|
|
Passive:
|
A letter
|
had been
written
|
by Karma.
|
|
|
Future II
|
Active:
|
Karma
|
will have
written
|
a letter.
|
|
Passive:
|
A letter
|
will have
been written
|
by Karma
|
|
|
Conditional
I
|
Active:
|
Karma
|
would write
|
a letter.
|
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Passive:
|
A letter
|
would have
written
|
by Karma.
|
|
|
Conditional II
|
Active:
|
Karma
|
would have
written
|
a letter
|
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Passive:
|
A letter
|
would have
been written
|
by Karma.
|
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Passive
sentences with Two Objects.
Rewriting an active sentence with two objects in passive
voice means that one of the two objects becomes the subject, the other one
remains an object. Which object to transform into a subject depends on what you
want to put the focus on.
|
|
Subject
|
Verb
|
Object 1
|
Object 2
|
|
Active:
|
Karma
|
wrote
|
A letter
|
To.
|
|
Passive:
|
A letter
|
Was written
|
To me
|
By Karma.
|
|
Passive:
|
I
|
Was written
|
A letter
|
By Karma.
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