Passive vs. Active Voice PUNCTUATION LESSON

What is “Voice” in a sentence? Voice is how a subject of a sentence relates to its verb. In other words, is the subject acting, or being acted upon?

Active Voice In active voice, the subject is the one doing the action. Examples: Children play games. He will earn the money he needs. Michael can help us. Everyone completed the project on time. Will you please pause the movie?

Passive Voice In passive voice, the subject is receiving the action done by someone or something else. Examples: Games are played [by children]. The money he needs will be earned. We can be helped by Michael. The projected was completed on time. The movie will be paused.

Why you need to know the difference MOST OF THE TIME it is better to use active voice instead of passive voice. Passive voice makes your writing sound too wordy. It takes more words to say the same thing in passive voice than active voice. Your writing begins to sound very weak with too many passive sentences. No one in these sentences is doing anything. The job was done. The shelves were dusted. Floors were scrubbed. All of the dishes were picked up from the tables. Rags were taken to the back to be washed. The entire restaurant was cleaned.

How to tell the difference Active: Your subject is doing something Passive: Your subject is having something done by someone or something else Active: We are selling these cars at a loss. Passive: The cars are being sold at a loss. Active: John gave Allen a model plane. Passive: Allen was given a model plan [by John].