VOICES OF THE VERB

Active and Passive Voices

Voices of the Verb

In grammar, the voice of a verb describes the relationship between the action (or state) that the verb expresses and the participants identified by its arguments (subject, object, etc.). 

Active Voice

The active voice is the "normal" voice. This is the voice that we use most of the time.

Subject + verb + object In the active voice, the object receives

the action of the verb:Subject Verb Object

Cats eat fish

Passive Voice

In the passive voice, the subject receives the action of the verb.

The structure of the passive voice is very simple:

subject + auxiliary verb (be) + main verb (past participle)

The main verb is always in its past participle form.

We use the passive when we want to make the active object more important.

Note that we always use by to introduce the passive object.

Passive Voice

SubjectAuxiliary

Verb(to be)

Main Verb(past

participle)

Water is drunk by many

100 people are employedby this

company

Activity I

Give each picture a description using the active voice then transform it to passive.