What is Active and Passive Voice? Exercises and Examples (PDF)
What is Active Voice?
In this lesson, we will learn Active and Passive voice structures. Active and passive are the two grammatical voices in the English language. Most used form in daily English conversations is Active voice sentences. In active voice sentences, the subject is doing the action. In other words the subject who performs an action and the action is always clear. If the subject performing the action in the sentence, this sentence is an active sentence.
Active voice: He broke my heart.
What is Passive Voice?
Passive voices, on the other hand, is used when the subject doing the action is unknown or not important. In other words, passive sentences are used not by the person who does the action, but by the person who is affected by the action.
Passive voice: My heart is broken by him.
Remember!
In active sentences the subject of the sentence is the person or thing that does the action. In passive sentences, the verb is performed by someone or something other than the subject!
Active and Passive Voice in All Tenses
You can use the passive voice in almost all verb tenses. Check these examples:
Active: I cooked the meal. / Passive: The meal is cooked.
Active: I am cooking the meal. / Passive: The meal is being cooked.
Active: I have cooked the meal. / Passive: The meal has been cooked.
Active: I cooked the meal. / Passive: The meal was cooked.
Active: I was cooking the meal. / Passive: The meal was being cooked.
Active: I will cook the meal. / Passive: The meal will be cooked.
| Simple Present Tense | Subject + Verb+ object I make a cake. | Subject+ am/is/are + V3 + by A cake is made by me. |
| Present Continuous Tense | Subject+ to be (am/is/are) + V-ing + Object I am making a cake. | Subject+ am/is/are + being + V3 + by A cake is being made by me. |
| Simple Past Tense | Subject+ V2 + Object I made a cake yesterday. | Subject+ was/were + V3 + by A cake was made by me yesterday. |
| Past Continous Tense
| Subject+ was/were + V-ing I was making a cake. | Subject + was/were + being + V3 + by A cake was being made by me. |
| Future Tense | Subject+ will + V1 I will make a cake. | Subject+ will + be + V3 + by A cake will be made by me. |
| The Present Perfect Tense | Subject+ have/has + V3 I have made a cake. | Subject + have/has + been + V3 + by A cake has been made by me. |
| Past Perfect Tense | Subject+ had + V3 I had made a cake. | Subject+ had + been + V3 + by A cake had been made by me. |
Check Also:
500+ English Verbs List (V1 V2 V3 Verb Forms)
Active and Passive Voice PDF
If you want to learn more about active and passive voice, you can download free Active and Passive Voice PDF down below. In this e-book you will find, how to use the auxiliary verb “be”, detailed guide about verb tenses used in active and passive voice and when to use passive voice in your writing and speaking.
Active and Passive Voice PDF – download
Active and Passive Voice Exercises PDF – download
