difference between passive and active voice

Difference between passive and active voice how to#

Is “To Be” a Sign of a Passive Sentence?Ī lot of people think all sentences that contain a form of the verb “to be” are in passive voice, but that isn’t true. If you wanted to make the title of the Marvin Gaye song passive, you would say “It was heard by me through the grapevine,” not such a catchy title anymore. The focus of the sentence has changed from Steve to Amy. Rather, she is just the recipient of Steve’s love.

Instead of saying, “Steve loves Amy,” I would say, “Amy is loved by Steve.” The subject of the sentence becomes Amy, but she isn’t doing anything. In passive voice, the target of the action gets promoted to the subject position. “I” is hearing “it,” the object of the sentence. A straightforward example is the sentence “Steve loves Amy.” Steve is the subject, and he is doing the action: he loves Amy, the object of the sentence.Īnother example is the title of the Marvin Gaye song “I Heard It through the Grapevine.” “I” is the subject, the one who is doing the action. In an active sentence, the subject is doing the action. I’ll start with active voice because it’s simpler. As a result, the writer sounds vague or has made unreferenced generalisations.Īt this point it’s necessary to reinforce our earlier statement: passive voice is not inherently wrong, but has been used incorrectly (instead of active voice) in the examples above.Well, Brian is right, the first step is to help people understand the difference between active and passive voice, because many people believe they should avoid the passive voice, but fewer people can define it or recognize it. It was demonstrated that ‘Source A’ could be used to estimate the population of the Ancient Roman city.Īgain, who demonstrated this? Used in this way, passive voice has removed the actor from the action. Is it an authoritative and reputable source, or is it Aunt Marjorie’s opinion? Though this may be true (see our article on student poverty), it’s not clear who believes this. It is believed that two-thirds of all university students live below the poverty line. Another way to identify passive voice is to ask whether the actor has been obscured or completely removed from the sentence. Not all sentences written in passive voice use the word ‘by’. The Ethics Committee endorsed the research proposal. The researcher’s teaching strategies were successful in remediating underachievement. The research proposal was endorsed by the Ethics Committee.Īctive voice could simplify these sentences, and more clearly identify the actor, as follows:

It is therefore evident that underachievement was remediated by the teaching strategies applied during the case study.

This is evident in our earlier fox and rabbit example, but also in the following academic examples: Some sentences written in passive voice contain the word ‘by’ to hide the actor within the sentence. The subject does not perform the action expressed by the verb it receives the action’. 24–25) says passive voice ‘reverses the normal flow of action. The focus becomes that the ‘rabbit was chased’, rather than the fox doing the chasing. The earlier example can be written in passive voice by reversing it or removing the actor completely: ‘The rabbit was chased by the fox’ or simply, ‘The rabbit was chased’. Passive voice renders the subject a passive recipient of the action. In sentences written in passive voice, the focus of the sentence is the action, rather than the actor. This sentence is written in active voice. In the simple sentence, ‘The fox chased the rabbit’, the ‘fox’ is the actor and is performing the action of ‘chasing the rabbit’. In sentences written in active voice, the subject (or actor) in the sentence is performing an action. What is Active and Passive Voice in Writing?

Difference between passive and active voice how to#

This article will explain the difference between the active and passive voice and our next article, ‘ When is Passive Voice Useful?’, will explain how to use active and passive voice effectively your own writing. It’s important to state upfront that neither voice is wrong per se when used correctly, they each serve a purpose in academic writing. Knowing the difference between active and passive voice is important for academic writing. What is the Difference between Active and Passive Voice?