Active Voice vs Passive Voice

Difference Between Active voice and Passive voice, Types, Rules and Usage

What is voice?

Voice is basically a form of verb that reveals that something has been done with the subject or subject has done it with itself. I t describe the connection between the action and the subject in a phrase or sentence. The subject can be a person, place, or thing.

Two voices in the English language

There are two types of voices in the English language

• Active voice
• Passive voice

Let us see the details of these voices and understand how they are used in different sentences.

What is Active Voice?

The active voice in the sentence is the subject which does some action. A subject is a noun or a pronoun like a person, place, or a thing. In Active voice, the subject does the action on the object. 

• Subject + verb + object.

Examples:

1. Henry (Subject) helps Jacob (object).
2. The girl (Subject) painted the wall (object).
3. Sarah (Subject) gives Jenny a gift (object).

In these examples, we can clearly see that the subject is doing something for an object.

What is Passive Voice?

In Passive voice, something is done to the subject. In passive voice, the subject does not do any action but the action or verb acts upon it. Now the main focus is on the verb and in passive voice we use two verbs in a sentence. The formula of Passive voice is the opposite of active voice.

• Object + verb + subject.

Examples:

1.  Jacob (object) is helped by Henry (subject).
2. The wall (object) is painted by the girl (subject).
3. A gift (object) is given by Jenny (subject).

In these examples, we can see that something is done to the subject.

Rules for Active voice and Passive voice