English: Lessons: Grammar: Active, Passive Voice

 

         

Active Voice | Passive Voice | Active or Passive Quiz

 
 

Active Voice, Passive Voice

There are two special forms for verbs called voice:

  1. Active voice
  2. Passive voice

The active voice is the "normal" voice. This is the voice that we use most of the time. You are probably already familiar with the active voice. In the active voice, the object receives the action of the verb:

active subject verb object
  >
Cats eat fish.

The passive voice is less usual. In the passive voice, the subject receives the action of the verb:

passive subject verb object
<  
Fish are eaten by cats.

The object of the active verb becomes the subject of the passive verb:

  subject verb object
active Everybody drinks water.
passive Water is drunk by everybody.

Now we'll look at the passive voice in more detail >>