This document discusses the difference between active and passive voice in English grammar. It defines active voice as having the subject perform the action of the verb, while passive voice has the subject receive the action. The document provides examples of sentences in both voices and notes that active voice is generally clearer and easier to understand. It also discusses when to use passive voice, such as when the recipient of the action is more important than the subject. The document concludes by recapping the key differences between active and passive voice and listing the eight tenses that can be converted to the passive form.

1. Voices Prepared by : Karan Kumar

2.  What is thedifference
between active and
passivevoice?
 How and When to
use them?

3.  How to Convert Active into
Passive?
 Formula and Examples
 Tenses which can be
converted into Passive

4. The term voice here, refers to the structure of a
sentence.
There are two “voices” in English grammar; active voice
and passive voice.

5. According to the Chicago Manual of Styles; “voice shows
whether the subject (of the sentence) acts… or is acted on … -
That is whether the subject performs or receive the action of
the verb”

6. Active Voice
In an active voice sentence, the subject ( theone who does
theactioninthe sentence) is clearlystatedas thesubject.
Thething that the subjectdoes something to ( the direct
object)comes aftertheverb.
Subject--Verb--object

7. • Let’s look at some
examples of Active Voice
 Kathy wrote anessay.
 Carly made an apple pie.
Thesubject of the sentence performs
the action.

8. PassiveVoice
In a passive voice sentence, the thing that the subject does
something to (Object), is placed as the subject of the
sentence.
The subject (the one who does the action) is placed after the
subject, usually in a prepositional phrase. In fact, sometimes
thesubject is hidden or not evenmentioned.

9. Examples of
passive voice
Example 1:An essaywas written byAmy.
(here, the subjectis mentioned)
Example 2:An essaywas written.
(here the subject is not mentioned)
*note: In passive voice , the verb is often followed with “By”

10. Active voice focuses attention on the subject, which brings
clarity and forcefulness to your writing.
Studies show that active voice sentences (where the subject is
stated first) are easier to understand than passive voice
sentences.
Why is active voice used in most of
the writing done in school and at
work?

11. Let’s look up more examples:
Active voice: Students consider topics for the next
essay.
Passive voice: Topics for the next essayare being
considered by thestudents.
The active voice is less wordy

12. This is not to say that passive voice
can’t or should not be used.

13. This brings us to when should you
use passive voice?
!When the receiver of the action is more important than the
subject
o Activevoice: Principal rewardedAmy the best student prize.
o Passive voice:Amy was rewarded the best student prize.
Here the emphasisis placed on Amy the receiver of
the prize not the school that rewarded her.
1.

14. 2.When you consciously try to minimize the role of the subject or
the subject is notknown
o Activevoice: Kris could not complete the year book because
his team misplaced the data gathered.
o Passive voice: The year book was not
completed because the data weremisplaced.
3. When you write about scientific, technical, or natural processes
o Activevoice :Thetrucks deliveredthe merchandise to the
grocerystores.
o Passive voice:Themerchandise is delivered to the grocery
stores.

15. Torecap what we’ve talkedabout:
o Asentence in which the subject performs the action
is in activevoice.
o Asentence in which the subject receives the force of
the action of the verb is in passive voice.

16. Asyou can seeit is important to understand sentence
structures to better determine what voice to use…
but remember to use active voice in most of your writing
asit makesreading easier and more interesting.

17. Tenses which are converted in passive:
There are eight tenses which are converted into passive . They are:
Present Indefinite
Past Indefinite
Future Indefinite
Present Continuous
Past continuous
Present perfect
Past Perfect
Future Perfect

18. Formula:-
Subject + Verb + Object
Object + Verb3 + by +
Subject.