Definition of Active and Passive Voice

Active and Passive Voices are the two ways of expressing an action taken by a subject on an
object. Meaning of the sentence either in active or passive voice doesn’t change except few
structural changes. Kindly go through the below example-

Active Voice- I draw a sketch.

Active Voice is the most direct and effective way to convey the information. It a simply starts
with the Subject (in this case ‘I’ who performs the action) followed by the Verb (action)-
‘draw’ and then the Object (on whom the action is performed)-sketch. Active Voice is
expressed in the simple form of – Subject + Action (Verb) + Object.

Passive Voice- A sketch is drawn by me.

Passive Voice conveys the same message as in Active Voice, but it does it in an indirect way.
In the Passive Voice the subject becomes “Passive” and the Object gets the prominence. Like
in the above Passive Sentence the subject ‘me’ is being acted upon by the object.

The meaning of both of the above sentences remains same and they have only structural
differences. It’s better to know the rules and Formulae for both Active and Passive Voices, by
going through Examples and Exercises.

Some more Example Sentences of Active and Passive Voices:

ACTIVE VOICE PASSIVE VOICE

I ride a horse A horse is ridden by me
I eat a pizza A pizza is eaten by me
He wrote a letter A letter was written by him
She wore a suit A suit was worn by her
They called the police The Police was called by them
1) Simple Present Tense
When an Active voice in simple Present Tense is converted into Passive Voice; the verb is
changed into past participle form complemented with the Auxiliary Verbs – is, are, am.

TENSE ACTIVE VOICE PASSIVE VOICE

VERB FORM: First Form VERB FORM: is/am/are + Past

/Base Form Participle (Third Form)

I write a letter A letter is written by me

She speaks French French is spoken by her

SIMPLE PRESENT TENSE

He does not drink coffee Coffee is not drunk by him

Does she play chess? Is chess played by her?

They leave me I am left by them

Pronouns I, she, he, they are changed to me, her, him and them respectively, while converting
to Passive Voices.