Addis Ababa science and Technology university
What Is Voice in Grammar?
Voice is the term used to describe whether a verb is active or passive.
In other words, when the subject of the verb is doing the action of the verb (e.g., "The dog bit
the postman."), the verb is said to be in the active voice. When the subject of the verb is being
acted upon (e.g., "The postman was bitten."), the verb is said to be in the passive voice. So,
the voice of a verb tells us whether the subject is acting or being acted upon.
Active and passive voice
Voice refers to the form of a verb that indicates when a grammatical subject performs the action or is the
receiver of the action. When a sentence is written in the active voice, a sentence has a subject that
acts upon its verb or the subject performs the action; in the passive voice, a subject is a recipient of
a verb’s action or the subject receives the action. In academic writing, it is generally preferred to
choose an active verb and pair it with a subject that names the person or thing doing or performing the
action. Active verbs are stronger and usually more emphatic than forms of the verb “be” or verbs in the
passive voice.
Example:
 Active: The award-winning chef prepares each meal with loving care.
 Passive: Each meal is prepared with loving care by the award-winning chef.
In the above example of an active sentence, the simple subject is “chef” and “prepares” is the verb: the
chef prepares “each meal with loving care.” In the passive sentence, “meal” is the simple subject and “is
prepared” is the verb: each meal is prepared “by the award-winning chef.” In effect, the object of the
active sentence becomes the subject in the passive sentence. Although both sentences have the same
basic components, their structure makes them different from each other. Active sentences are about what
people (or things) do, while passive sentences are about what happens to people (or things).
What’s the difference between active and passive voice?
Active voice
When the subject of a sentence performs the verb’s action, we say that the sentence
is in the active voice. Sentences in the active voice have a strong, direct, and clear
tone.
Here are some short and straightforward examples of active voice.
 Monkeys adore bananas.
 The cashier counted the money.
 The dog chased the squirrel.
All three sentences have a basic active voice construction: subject, verb, and object.
The subject monkey performs the action described by adore. The subject the
cashier performs the action described by counted. The subject the dog performs the
action described by chased. The subjects are doing, doing, doing—they take
action in their sentences. The active voice reminds us of the popular Nike slogan,
“Just Do It.”
Here are some more examples of verbs (shown in bold) in the active voice.

Lee ate the pies.
(Lee is the subject of the verb. The subject is doing the action of the verb.)

We play hopscotch.
(We is the subject of the verb. The subject is doing the action of the verb.)

The sharks will attack the cage.(The sharks is the subject of the verb. The
subject is doing the action of the verb.)
Passive voice
A sentence is in the passive voice, on the other hand, when the subject is acted on by
the verb. The passive voice is always constructed with a conjugated form of to
be plus the verb’s past participle. Doing this usually generates a preposition as well.
That sounds much more complicated than it is—passive voice is actually quite easy
to detect. For these examples of passive voice.
we will transform the three active sentences above to illustrate the difference.

Bananas are adored by monkeys.

The money was counted by the cashier.

The squirrel was chased by the dog.
Let’s take a closer look at the first pair of sentences, “Monkeys adore bananas” and
“Bananas are adored by monkeys.” The active sentence consists of monkeys (subject)
+ adore (verb) + bananas (object). The passive sentence consists of bananas (object)
+ are adored (a form of to be plus the past participle adored) + by (preposition)
+ monkeys (subject). Making the sentence passive flipped the structure and
necessitated the preposition by. In fact, all three of the transformed sentences above
required the addition of by.
Here are some more examples of verbs in the passive voice.


The pies were eaten by Lee.
(The pies is the subject of the verb. The subject is being acted upon.)
Hopscotch is played by us.

(Hopscotch is the subject of the verb. The subject is being acted upon.)
The cage will be attacked by the sharks.
(The cage is the subject of the verb. The subject is being acted upon.)