Active and Passive Voice



  • The pizza was eaten by the girls. (passive)The girls ate the pizza. (active)
The house was cleaned, the fish were fed, and then the expensive vase was broken. (passive) I cleaned the house, I fed the fish, and then I broke the expensive vase.
In other words, ask yourself "who kicked whom?"
This is much easier than it sounds. Let's turn a passive sentence into an active sentence.
The cookie

was eaten

by John.

John ate the cookie. (Active)
There are certain times when it is appropriate to use the passive voice. The first is when you do not need to know who did something, or when we don't know who did it.
My car was stolen yesterday. (passive)
Someone stole my car yesterday. (active)
You can also use the PassiveVoice in incidents of tragedy, accident or violence.
She was kidnapped. (passive)

Someone kidnapped her. (active)

Exercise: Change the following sentences to the active voice.

1. A Republican will be elected as mayor by the public next year.2. A batch of cookies was made by my son this morning. 3. The subway fare will be raised to $1.50 next week by the city. 4. The play has been called witty and warm by well-known and knowledgeable critics.5. The pumpkin was tossed off the bridge by that group of trick-or-treaters. 6. My book was dropped off at the library. 7. An example of a passive sentence was demanded by the professor. 8. The guitar was played by the musician.

Resources for Active and Passive Voice

Grammar Girl

Purdue Online Writing Lab

Online Quiz

Active and Passive explained