Are you skeptical which sentence is active voice or passive voice in a piece? Read through as we explain the rules of active voice and passive voice.
Active voice: Subject acting on Sb/St (object). Active voice follow the basic active voice sentence structure: subject, verb, and object.
Use active voice when defining, describing or for context explanation. Example:
Lionel Messi is an Argentine professional football Player, who have played in Spanish club side, Bacelona FC, for over 20 years.
Passive voice: Somebody/Something (Object) receiving subject’s action. Drafting a passive voice requires the conjugative forms of verb “to be” (be, become, been or being) and a past participle (complete verb).
In application of passive voice, the speaker/writer should put the subject closer to the past participle verb so to avoid confusing readers or viewers. For example:
The C of O document was signed by the state governor representative, whose power of land ownership is vested upon. Subject: representative; participle: signed.
Use passive voice with the intention of stopping the sentence at point of mentioning the subject recipient following the word "“by”". With the word “by” appears in the sentence, you shouldn’t continue. But without the word “by” you may continue .Example:
The ball was played by Messi.(Correct)✔
The ball was played to messi, who then passed the it to Neymar.(correct)✔
Use passive voice when you wish to highlight the main verb over the subject in a sentence. Example:
A ball was kicked by Lionel Messi.
Use passive voice when you wish to hide the subject either from blame or because it’s irrelevant or seen as a distraction in the sentence, the writer/speaker desires to continue while the recipient is clearly mentioned. In the following example, “the red-cap carpenter” is the recipient and the subject of the action passed over is hidden:
The hammer was passed over to the red-cap carpenter. (Correct)✔
In the case of reporting actions of an unknown doer (Subject), use passive voice. Without the use of “by” while the recipient is clearly mentioned; In the following example, The Chinese fortress was the recipient. Doers (subjects) of actions (built and torn down) were unknown.
The Chinese fortress that was built in 5000 years ago, was torn down in 2 hours and 58 minutes. (Correct)✔
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