PASSIVE VOICE

Passive Voice and Active Voice

Active Voice

We say that a sentence is in the active voice when the meaning of the verb is produced by the grammatical person

In active sentences, the thing doing the action is the subject of the sentence and the thing receiving the action is the object. Most sentences are active.

[Thing doing action] + [verb] + [thing receiving action]

1. The professor teaches the students.

2. John washes the dishes.

3. Pedro founded Buenos Aires.

4. My mom is cooking a cake.

5. I may study a lesson

Passive Voice

We say that a sentence is in passive voice if the meaning of the verb is received by the grammatical person.

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 know who is doing the action or if you do not want to mention who is doing the action.

[Thing receiving action] + [be] + [past participle of verb] + [by] + [thing doing action]

1. The students are taught by the professor.

2. The dishes are washed by John.

3. Buenos Aires was founded by Pedro.

4. A cake is being cooked by my mom.

5. The lesson may be studied by me.

The passive voice is formed with the verb to be conjugated plus the past participle of the main verb.

In English it is much more frequent than in Spanish and usually appears when it is not important who performs an action but the fact.

You can only use the passive with transitive verbs, verbs that take direct object.

ACTIVE VOICE

Tom writes a letter

Tom is writing a letter

Tom was writing a letter

Tom wrote a letter

Tom has written a letter

Tom had written a letter

Tom will write a letter

Tom is going to write a letter

Tom can write a letter

Tom could write a letter

Tom must write a letter

Tom may write a letter

Tom might write a letter

PASSIVE VOICE

A letter is written by Tom

A letter is being written by Tom

A letter was being written by Tom

A letter was written by Tom

A letter has been written by Tom

A letter had been written by Tom

A letter will be written by Tom

A letter is going to be written by Tom

A letter can be written by Tom

A letter could be written by Tom

A letter must be written by Tom

A letter may be written by Tom

A letter might be written by Tom

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