Make a passive sentence active, How do I recognize the passive voice ?

Make a passive sentence active

The difference between active and passive voice is simply this : in the active voice , the subject is the doer of the action, while in the passive voice , the subject is the receiver of the action.

In most cases, write in the active voice makes it easier for readers to understand your message, because the phrase is written in a logical order :

doer of the action + action + receptor action (if applicable)

When changing this order , as it is in the passive voice , the message is less straightforward and therefore less clear and effective .

How do I recognize the passive voice ?

There are three signs to help you recognize a sentence in the passive voice :

1. The subject is doing the action .

Two . The verb is always a form of be + past participle (often ending in- ed ) :

are arranged

were painted

be destroyed

being recorded

are being made ( participle irregular)

have been invented

had written ( irregular participle )

Three . Often, the doer of the action is expressed in a prepositional phrase starting Withby :

by Thomas

by students

by sculptor

These three signs to help you identify passive sentences in their own writing. It is often better to rewrite passive sentences to be active . ( For exceptions to this rule , follow the link to the active vs. passive voice at the end of this article) .

How I can change a passive voice sentence to active voice ?

Here's an example of a sentence in the passive voice :

The novel was written Obasan by Joy Kogawa .

To change this sentence from passive to active voice , follow these three steps :

Step 1. 

Start your active voice sentence the doer of the action. In this case , the author of the action is Joy Kogawa (located in the sentence beginning with b ) ​​:

Joy Kogawa ...

Step 2. 

Make the active verb . To make a passive verb active , take the main verb (ie , the last word of the verb phrase ) , and put it in the same time as an assistant. In this case , the main verb is to write (from writing) , and the assistant was gone, that 's in the past simple. So the verb active voice , we want to write to the simple verb past tense - in other words, wrote :

Joy Kogawa wrote ...

Step 3. 

Finally, put the novel Obasan ( the subject of the passive sentence ) after the verb , as it is the receiver of the action:

Joy Kogawa 's novel Obasan wrote .

The resulting sentence is in the active voice. You can follow the same steps to turn any sentence from passive to active voice .

Note : If a sentence does not contain a sentence beginning with , you have to use logic to find the doer of the action:

The crime will be solved quickly.

Solved by whom? By the police. Then the police is the doer of the action:

The police will solve the crime quickly.

Beware of passive sentences , as they are easy to lose , even experienced writers drop them in your writing. Check each sentence to find the doer of the action and then follow these simple steps to make your writing clearer and easier to understand for the readers.