Wish to study voice

Question

i would like to study active & passive voice

Miriam · Accepted Answer

It would be impossible to write everything there is to know about "voice" in English in just one post, but I hope the following will help.

In English, a transitive verb can be used either in the 'active' or the 'passive' voice.
If the person or thing denoted by the subject is the 'doer' of the action expressed by the verb, then the verb is in the active voice:
"The boy kicked the football."

If, on the other hand, the person or thing denoted by the subject is the 'receiver' of the action, then the verb is in the passive voice:
"The football was kicked by the boy."

There are several exceptions to the following rule but, basically, and making perhaps a very broad generalisation, the direct object of a verb in the active voice will become the subject of that verb in the passive voice. The original subject becomes the agent of the verb in the passive voice (usually introduced by the pteposition "by").
Active voice: 'the boy': subject, 'the football': direct object.
Passive voice: 'the football': subject, (by) 'the boy': agent.

The auxiliary verb of the passive voice is 'to be'. Basically, to form the passive voice of any transitive verb, you use the verb 'to be' to indicate tense, and you then add the past participle of the main verb (that will be an -ed form if the verb is regular).
Examples:

Active Voice ....................................................... Passive Voice
"I visit my sister daily."(present simple)........"My sister is visited daily (by me)."
"Mr. Black is teaching this class."................."This class is being taught (by Mr. Black)."
"She will buy a car next week."...................."A car will be bought (by her) next week."
"Mary was writing letters all night."..............."Letters were being written all night (by Mary)."
"The police arrested the thieves."................."The thieves were arrested (by the police)."

This is only a brief overview of the structure of the passive voice. But there is much more to say: when it is used, when the agent is not used, what transitive verbs are not ~~as a norm~~ used in the passive voice, when the indirect object can become the subject of a sentence in the passive voice, etc.

Please let me know if you'd like to learn all of that, or what else you might need.

Miriam

Wish to study voice

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