English Second Language·Grammar & language usage · NSSCO 1.7
Active & passive voice
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Two ways to build the very same sentence. In the active voice the subject does the action — 'The dog chased the cat.' In the passive voice the subject receives the action — 'The cat was chased by the dog.' We'll learn to spot each one, turn an active sentence into a passive one in three tidy steps (and back again), use the passive across the tenses, decide when each voice reads best, and fix the little mistakes learners often make.
What you'll learn in this lesson
By the end you should be able to (NSSCO English Second Language 1.7):
- Explain the difference between the active voice (the subject does the action) and the passive voice (the subject receives the action)
- Change a sentence from the active voice into the passive voice in three steps: object to the front, verb to 'to be' plus past participle, doer into a 'by' phrase
- Change a sentence from the passive voice back into the active voice
- Form the passive voice correctly in different tenses (is written, was written, has been written, will be written)
- Decide when the passive voice is useful (unknown or unimportant doer, formal and scientific writing) and when the active voice reads better
- Recognise and correct common passive-voice mistakes (missing 'to be', wrong participle, changed tense)
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