In an Active Voice sentence, the subject is doing the action; in a Passive

Voice sentence, the subject receives the action from the verb.

TERMS
• active voice
The most common “voice” – the subject of the sentence does an action

• passive voice
A “voice” in which the focus in on the action

• past participles
A form of the verb that usually ends in -ED (for regular verbs)

Read this add from a Non-Profit Organization (NGO)

New Sunday tours of the restored Washington Monument

and Mount Vernon Place JULY 9, 2015

Photograph by Peter Fitzgerald, 2008 June 2.

Courtesy Wikimedia Commons (CC SA).

With the reopening of Baltimore’s

Washington Monument on July 4,
Baltimore Heritage is pleased to start
offering tours of the monument and surrounding historic squares. After it was
extensively renovated, the 200-year-old monument looks great and visitors
are again allowed inside.
Source: https://baltimoreheritage.org/about/#.WVwSZIg1-Cg

Active Voice
Look at this example:

• The 200-year-old monument looks great.

(subject) (verb)
In this sentence, the action [look] is performed by the subject [the 200-year-old
monument].
This is what we call Active Voice, because it is the subject who actively does the action.
It is the most common “voice”.
Another example:

• The architects renovated the monument.

[subject] [verb] [object]
Who renovated the monument? The architects = the action is performed by the
subject.
The focus in on the Subject, the person who performs the action.

Passive Voice
In the Passive Voice, the focus in on the Action.
Let’s compare this two Voices:
Subject Verb Object Focus

ACTIVE The architects renovated the We are focused on the

monument. architects.

PASSIVE The monument was renovated. (by the We are focused on the
architects) monument.

ACTIVE They allow visitors inside. We are focused on

“they”.

PASSIVE Visitors are (again) allowed inside. We are focused on the

action (are allowed).

Uses of the Passive Voice

We use the Passive Voice when:
We prefer the passive when it is not so important who or what does the action.

• English is spoken in many countries.

We use the passive when we don’t know who did the action.

• The bank was robbed yesterday.

We use the passive when we want to emphasize the object.
 • Radium was discovered by Marie and Pierre Curie in 1898.
This last example is mostly used in Reports, Scientific Papers, and protocols in
general.

Form of the Passive Voice

VERB TO BE + PAST PARTICIPLE

To be Past Pasticiple Examples

IS SPOKEN English is spoken in many countries.

ARE STUDIED English is studied at college.

WAS DISCOVERED Radium was discovered in 1898.

WERE BORN We were born in Salta.

Tenses in the Passive Voice

These are the passive forms of the present and past tenses:

Tense Verb Example

Present am / is / are Mate is grown* in Argentina.
Simple (done)

Present am / is / are being The room is being cleaned right now.

(done)
Continuous

Past Simple was / were The monument was restored.

(done)

Past was /were being The room was being cleaned when I arrived.
(done)
Continuous

Present has / have been I’m not going to the party. I have not been
(done) invited.
Perfect
(*) grow: crecer, cultivar, criar
Some expressions in the Passive Voice

We use the base form of the verb The Be (be done, be cleaned, be built, etc.) after
some verbs (for example: have to, be going to, want to, can):

Subject Verb Object Focus

ACTIVE We can solve the problem. We are focused on

we.

PASSIVE The problem can be solved (by us). We are focused on

(can + be + past participle) the problem.

Born: Remember that be born is a passive verb in English and is usually past:

• Where were you born?

(not are you born) simple past

• I was born in Chicago.

• How many babies are born in this hospital every day? (simple present)

Sometimes you can use get instead of be in the passive:

• There was a fight at the party, but nobody got hurt. ( = nobody was hurt)

References:
• Murphy, R. (1998). Grammar in Use - Reference and Practice for Intermediate Students
of English. Cambridge, Reino Unido: Cambridge University Press.
Units 40, 41, 42