Active / Passive Verb Forms
Sentences can be active or passive. Therefore, tenses also have "Active Forms" and "Passive Forms".
You must learn to recognize the difference to write more effectively.
ACTIVE FORM
In active sentences, the “thing” doing the action is the subject of the sentence and the “thing” receiving
the action is the object. Most sentences are active.
[Thing doing action] + [VERB] + [thing receiving action]
EXAMPLES:
The professor
(subject)
(doing action)
teaches
(active verb)
the students.
(object)
(receiving action)
John
(subject)
(doing action)
washes
(active verb)
the dishes.
(object)
(receiving action)
PASSIVE FORM
In some sentences, speakers use the passive form. In the passive form, the thing receiving
the action is the subject of the sentence and the thing doing the action is optionally included
at the end of the sentence. You can use the passive form if you think the thing receiving the
action is more important or should be emphasized.
[Thing receiving action] + [BE] + [past participle of verb] + [by] + [thing doing action]
EXAMPLES:
The students
(subject)
(receiving action)
are taught
(passive verb)
The dishes
(subject)
(receiving action)
are washed
(passive verb)
by the professor.
(doing action)
by John.
(doing action)
Grammar Review Exercises
[The following exercises have been prepared by Ian Johnston of Malaspina University-College, Nanaimo, BC.
These pages are in the public domain and may be used, in whole or in part, by anyone, without permission and
without charge, provided the source is acknowledged. Last revised April 2002]
Active and Passive Verbs
1.0 Comments
Most English verbs have two voices, the Active and the Passive. Learn the difference between
these two, noting carefully that this is not a matter of tense (present, past, or future) but deals
with the question of whether or not the subject is the source or the recipient of the action in the
verb.
As a general rule, for a clear style, you should avoid the passive voice, unless you have a
compelling reason for doing so.
2.0 Exercise in Active and Passive Verbs
Indicate in the following sentences whether the verbs in bold are in the active or passive voice.
How would you rewrite the sentence to get rid of the passive verb (i.e., put it into the active
form)?
1. The dog ate its master's food and was punished by his master for the misbehavior.
2. This passage is used by the author to bring out the ambiguous nature of the setting.
3. It has been determined that the fees at Malaspina University-College are much too low. The
students do not agree.
4. When the general meaning of this passage is considered, we see that it has an effect
different from the rest of this chapter.
5. Shakespeare has been dead for many years, but his plays are still read by millions of people
every year, and productions of his plays are often put on by amateur and professional theatre
companies all over the world.
6. The research team found that the accident was caused by a faulty O-ring in one of the main
engines; this item was shrunk beyond specification by the unusually cold weather.
7. The surveying team arrived at the site at 10:00 a.m. First, a baseline was measured, and then
random plots were designed, and finally, the standard sampling was done.
8. The imagery in this poem is used to create a sense of despair, and this sense is reinforced
by the words which have been chosen by the author.
9. Once it is recommended by the courts that the government owes its workers a massive sum
for pay equity, then the government must abide by the decision.
10. Scientists have discovered that AIDS is caused by a complex combination of viral agents.
3.0 Exercise on Passive Verbs
Rewrite the following passage getting rid of the passive verbs and improving the punctuation by
providing commas where necessary.
Modernism a very common term in discussions of modern culture is difficult to define since
so many definitions have been offered by many different people. The term is used by many writers
to refer to new styles in painting music art poetry and prose in the last hundred and forty years or so
from about 1850 to 1995 but what exactly is meant by the term. After searching through a number
of cultural dictionaries, it is obvious that the question cannot be answered easily, any such answer
will depend upon how the term has been defined by a particular writer in a particular discipline,
Modernism to a historian of European literature for example may well mean in fact probably will
mean something significantly different than what Modernism means to a historian of music for
example. If we look at the history of English poetry it can be concluded that there is a fair amount
of agreement that the Modernist movement in poetry began in England early in the century shortly
before World War one when a new movement was started by a small group of poets in London.
This new group which called its artistic style Imagism sought to reform the tradition of writing
poetry in English, among its members was the young brash talented American Ezra Pound who
quickly emerged as the leading public spokesperson for the group. A number of manifestos were
published by Pound urging that certain new principles should be followed by all good poets. New
rhythms free verse and a concentration on concise imagery were included in his recommendations
for the new poetry.