21110 passive voice and active voice

Vs.
We use passive voice when we want to focus on THE OBJECT of the sentence and not on THE SUBJECT, because it’s not
important or it is unknown. On the contrary, the active voice focuses in THE SUBJECT and not THE OBJECT. In the active
voice you know exactly who performs the action of the verb.
Example:
•

ACTIVE VOICE:
The laborers

take

Subject

o
o
•

the milk

Main
Object
verb
Who takes the milk to the factory? THE LABORERS
What they take? THE MILK
object

to the factory.

The rest of the sentence
subject

PASSIVE VOICE:
The Milk

is taken
Verb to be

to the factory
The rest of the sentence

by the laborers
Subject

Participle
of the
main verb

The passive voice in the present is formed with the present tense of the VERB TO BE and THE PAST
PARTICIPLE of the main verb.
STEPS FOR PASSING AN ACTIVE VOICE SENTENCE TO A PASSIVE VOICE SENTENCE:

Find the object of the sentence by asking what
+verb of the sentence.
Place the object as a subject in the sentence.
Find the verb to be and places it after the object (it
depends if the object is plural or singular (am- isare)) and when it is in past (was (singular)- were
(plural))
After the verb write the participle of the main verb.
Finally, add the complement of the sentence.

Created by Teacher Natalia Rojas Murillo

IN SUMMARY:
ACTIVE VOICE TO PASSIVE VOICE
The chef

washes

The potatoes

are washed

the potatoes

by the chef


Created by Teacher Natalia Rojas Murillo