Active And Passive Voice Flashcards
What is active voice?
When the focus is on the subject and what the subject is doing
What is Passive voice?
When the focus is on the object, even though the object is still being affected by the subject
How do you recognise passive voice?
The object will come first, rather than the subject
Passive voice generally contains different forms of the verb “to be”
The object will not be doing anything, just “receiving” the verb from the subject
Passive voice is often a phrase, but not always
Ask who is performing the verb to find the subject
What are examples of verbs that can allude to passive voice?
To be Am Is Was We're Are Been
When are the five times that passive voice is useful?
In academic/formal writing. It creates a fact-based unbiased style of writing
When the message needs to be impersonal
When the writer wants to disguise responsibility
When attention should be on the object instead of the subject
When the identity of the subject is unknown
