Active voice and Passive voice, Using, Example Sentences;
Table of Contents
Active Voice
In everyday life, we often prefer to build sentences that have an active voice. When we describe the situations and actions we will tell from the perspective of the person or object that acts, it is often correct to use active voice verbs. In such sentences, the subject is usually the person who performs the action. Usually, the entity affected by the action is referred to as an object.
Beginners learn English with active voice sentences. Because unlike other sentence types, active voice sentences have a simpler structure.
The most important features of active voice sentences are that they reflect a clearer, harder and stronger meaning to the reader.
Sentences built with an active voice make the person feel the effect of the action directly. This is why we use active voice in our daily conversations in general. Now, let’s take a look at a few dialogs that can be given as examples of active voice sentences.
Here is an example:
– I love reading books. Would you like to offer me some books?
+ Is that so? I love reading books too. There are a few books I’d like to offer you. Have you read Da Vinci’s Code before?
– No, I’ve never heard of this book. Reading this book might be a good idea.
+ Exactly! I’d like to buy this book as a gift.
– Thank you so much!
Tips About The Dialogue:
Above, you see sentences with active voice shot in different time modes. In the first sentence of the dialogue, one says that he likes to read books. Reading a book is something that the subject likes. Therefore, we can easily understand that the active voice is used in this sentence.
In the continuation of the dialogue, the person used the phrase ‘’I’ve never heard of this book’’. This is a sentence with negative and past perfect tense form. In this sentence, an active voice structure is used. The person who has not read the book is the person who set up the sentence.
Passive Voice
Passive Voice is used in sentences in which the object affected by the action or situation becomes the subject. Such sentences often reflect a more literary ambiance.
You can often come across such objects, especially in literary texts. The structure of these sentences is different from the others. The words that should be used in sentences may change according to different time structures. Let’s see an example of a passive voice!
Here is an example:
– Meals were being cooked by a pretty famous cooker. Because it is really important that the food is liked by guests.
Above, you can see two different passive voice sentences that are captured by past continious tense and by simple present tense. As can be seen from the example, the sentence structure can be summarized as follows:
- Past Continuous: Subject + was / were + being + Verb 3
- The Simple Present: Subject + am / is / are + Verb 3
Now, if you wish, let’s compare the active voice and passive voice of the sentences that will have the same meaning. To see this comparison, you can take a look at the following sentences:
- All the students in the class love Smith.
- Mr. Smith is loved by all the students in the class.
- Women love chocolate.
- Chocolate is a dessert loved by women.
- People use the Internet to learn and share new information.
- The Internet is used by people to learn and share new information.
- People, especially in the morning, drink coffee.
- One of the most consumed drinks by people, especially in the morning, is coffee.
