![]() But sometimes passive sentence structures are used when one wants to deflect responsibility from the subject, or particularly emphasize the object of a sentence. If we turn the above sentences into passive voice examples, they look like this:Ī lot of the time, these don’t even look like real English. ![]() Passive voice represents this on a smaller sentence-scale structure. In story structure, writers are encouraged to have their characters taking action rather than having the action simply happen to them. Often, this type of writing is discouraged because it tends to slow down a narrative. Passive voice flips these sentences around so that instead of the subject doing something, something is being done to them. You could just say “She smiled,” or “They stepped outside,” and it would still be in the active voice. In each of these active voice examples, someone (that would be the subject, in grammatical terms), takes an action (that would be your verb) towards something else-him, a hat, a street (this would be the grammatical subject of a sentence). (In passive voice, this would be written as “He was smiled at by her.” We’ll look more at passive voice next.)Īnd so forth. Here are a few examples of sentences in active voice: It means someone is taking a direct action towards a goal. This type of writing is direct, straightforward, and convincing. What is active voice?Īctive voice is a simple sentence structure that involves the subject of a sentence-usually a person-doing something. However, there are instances in which the passive voice gives an extra dimension to a story. Most of the time, active voice is the better choice in writing. For example, “He gave her a new coat” is active voice, while “She was given a new coat” is passive voice. passive voice is that active voice describes someone doing something, while passive voice describes someone having something done to them. Sometimes a prepositional phrase like "by the" in the sentences above indicates that the action is performed on the subject, and that the sentence is passive.What’s the difference between active vs. Don't assume that just because there is a form of 'be' that the sentence is passive, however. You can recognize passive voice because the verb phrase will include a form of be (was, am, are, been, is). Another way to recognize passive-voice sentences is that they may include a "by the." phrase after the verb the agent performing the action, if named, is the object of the preposition in this phrase. The presence of a be-verb, however, does not necessarily mean that the sentence is in passive voice. You can recognize passive-voice expressions because the verb phrase will always include a form of be, such as am, is, was, were, are, or been. ![]() Instead, the writing appears to convey information that is not limited or biased by individual perspectives or personal interests. ![]() This practice helps to create the appearance of an objective, fact-based discourse because writers can present research and conclusions without attributing them to particular agents. In scientific writing, however, passive voice is more readily accepted since using it allows one to write without using personal pronouns or the names of particular researchers as the subjects of sentences (see the third example above). Also, overuse of passive voice throughout an essay can cause your prose to seem flat and uninteresting. Sometimes the use of passive voice can create awkward sentences, as in the last example above. The subject of the passive voice sentence performs the action expressed in the verb in this example.
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