In this case was is acting as a linking verb. In this case was indicates that the sentence happened in the past it does not indicate the passive voice in this instance. If this sentence were written in the active it would be something like this: “ prepared the samples in a clean room before sending them out for further examination.” Since we do not know who prepared the samples, the active sentence is incomplete. The action ( prepared) was done to the subject of the sentence ( samples). If this sentence were written in the passive it would read “More sodas were drunk by Jayden than by anyone else at the party.” Jayden does the action ( drank) to the object ( more sodas). This is the general principle to follow as you compose in the active voice: Place concrete nouns that can perform work in front of active verbs. To revise the above, all I did was look for the two buried things (simulations and zones) in the original version that could actually do something, and I made the sentence clearly about these two nouns by placing them in front of active verbs. Two model simulations (Figures 1 and 2) illustrate how zones of fracture concentration influence groundwater flow. But the reader’s task gets much easier in the revised version below: As often happens, the passive voice here has smothered potential verbs and kicked off a runaway train of prepositions. The sentence is becoming a burden for the reader, and probably for the writer too. Groundwater flow is influenced by zones of fracture concentration, as can be recognized by the two model simulations (see Figures 1 and 2), by which one can see. So why all the fuss? Because passive constructions can produce grammatically tangled sentences such as this: The passive choice slightly emphasizes “the rate of evaporation,” while the active choice emphasizes “the size of an opening.” Simple.

Active voice: The size of an opening controls the rate of evaporation.Passive voice: The rate of evaporation is controlled by the size of an opening.The subject of the sentence is not doing that thing.Īs you read at the two sentences below, think about the how the different voice may affect the meaning or implications of the sentence:.Something is happening (the sentence has a verb that is not a linking verb).There are two key features that will help you identify a passive sentence: If there is no “real” action taking place, is is simply acting as a linking verb. However, in “She was falling,” was simply indicates that the sentence takes place in the past. It’s easy to mistake a sentence like “She was falling.” or “He is short.” for a passive sentence. Unfortunately, my car was being towed away by the time I got to it.īecause to be has other uses than just creating the passive voice, we need to be careful when we identify passive sentences.Mirella is being pulled away from everything she loves.Remember, to be also has more complex forms like had been, is being, and was being. Its forms include am, are, is, was, were, and will be, which we learned about earlier in the course.

Remember that to be conjugates irregularly. The passive is created using the verb to be (e.g., the song is sung it was struck from behind). Despite these sentences being completely grammatically sound, we don’t know who hit “me” or what struck the car.

The passive voice “hides” who does the action. You may have noticed something unique about the previous two sentences: the subject of the sentence is not the person (or thing) performing the action.

Jasper was thrown from the car when it was struck from behind.

Let’s look at a couple more examples of the passive voice: So just what is the difference between these two voices? In the simplest terms, an active voice sentence is written in the form of “A does B.” (For example, “Carmen sings the song.”) A passive voice sentence is written in the form of “B is done by A.” (For example, “The song is sung by Carmen.”) Both constructions are grammatically sound and correct. When the passive voice is used to frequently, it can make your writing seem flat and drab. However, there are some instances where the passive voice is a better choice than the active. Why is this the case? Why is the passive voice so hated? After all, it’s been used twice on this page already (three times now). In both of these instances, you were (likely) guided away from the passive voice. You’ve probably heard of the passive voice-perhaps in a comment from an English teacher or in the grammar checker of a word processor. It can refer to the general “feel” of the writing, or it can be used in a more technical sense. In this section, we will focus on the latter sense as we discuss active and passive voice.

Active voice and passive voice