Active and Passive Voice

Active and passive voice change the focus of a sentence. The choice between active and passive voice affects meaning, clarity, formality, and lets us control the tone of our speech or writing. Learning to use both forms is an important part of building strong, flexible English skills. Active voice is more common in everyday speaking and writing, but knowing when to use passive voice gives you more control over what you want to emphasise.

What is Active & Passive Voice?

Active Voice:

In active voice, the subject of the sentence performs the action.
Example: The teacher explains the lesson.

Passive Voice:

In passive voice, the subject of the sentence receives the action.
Example: The lesson is explained by the teacher.

The key difference is who is performing the action. In active voice, it is clear who is doing the action. In passive voice, the focus shifts to the recipient of the action.

To understand the difference between active and passive voice, we first need to understand two important ideas:

Subject
Agent

Once you understand those, active and passive voice become much easier.

Subject and Agent

The Subject

The subject comes before the verb. In most simple sentences: Subject → Verb → Object

Here is an example: Joe washes the dog.

The verb is washes. The subject comes before the verb, so the subject is Joe.

The Agent

The agent is the person or thing that performs the action. You can think of the agent as the “actor” in the sentence. Let’s go back to our example sentence: Joe washes the dog.

Who performs the action? Joe.

So, in the sentence ‘Joe washes the dog’:

The subject is Joe
The agent is Joe

They are the same. When the subject is also the agent, active voice is being used.

Let’s take a look at a sentence where the subject and agent are different.

The dog is washed by the man.

First let’s find the subject. The subject comes before the verb. The verb/verb group is ‘is washed’. The subject is ‘The dog’.

Now let’s find the agent (the actor). To find the agent, we ask, ‘who is performing the action?’ The action, the washing, is being performed by ‘the man’.

The subject is ‘the dog’
The agent is ‘the man’.

When the subject and the agent are different, passive voice is being used.

When Do We Use the Passive Voice?

We use the passive voice when we want to focus on the action or the receiver of the action, not the doer (the person or thing performing the action).

1. When the doer is unknown or not important

The bridge was built in the 1700s.

We don’t know who built it. Or the builder is not important. The focus is on the bridge, not the person.

2. When the doer is obvious

Toby was promoted last week.

Who promoted him? Probably his boss. It’s clear from the situation, so we don’t need to say it. The focus stays on Toby.

3. When the result is more important than who caused it

Hundreds of homes were destroyed by the storm.

The important information is the destruction. The focus is on what happened and who was affected.

4. When we want to sound less direct or more polite

Compare:

You haven’t served us.
We haven’t been served.

The second sentence removes the direct focus on “you”. Passive voice can make a statement sound softer.

Video 1: Understanding Active and Passive Voice

In this video, we explain the difference between active and passive voice in detail. Learn how to identify the two voices and understand when and why to use each one.

Video 2: Change Active to Passive and Vice Versa

Now it’s time to practise. Watch this video for step-by-step exercises on changing sentences from active to passive voice and back again. You’ll get plenty of examples to help reinforce what you’ve learned.

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Worksheets

Worksheet 1: Printable pdf | Editable pdf

Worksheet 2: Printable pdf | Editable pdf