Passive vs. Active Voice

Passive
vs.
Active Voice

The active and passive voice relate to what the focus is within a sentence.

An active sentence focuses on the action of the subject:

Clarissa drinks coffee.

In the example above, Clarissa is the subject. She carries out the action, (drinks coffee) which is the object of the sentence.

A passive sentence reorders the structure of a phrase in that the ‘target of the action’ swaps the position with that of the subject. Put simply, a passive voice is when a verb acts upon a subject.

The coffee was drunk by Clarissa.

In the example above, Clarissa is moved to the position of the action, and the action (drinks coffee) has been made the subject, but the coffee doesn't follow any action.

Due to this vagueness in the grammatical structure, the passive sentence is sometimes problematic. While not necessarily incorrect, a passive voice often isn’t the most effective way to communicate.

• Active Voice

  Saul loves the high-jump.

  Lynn wrote the music.

  Mari sent her resume through.

• Passive Voice

  The high-jump is something Saul loves to do.

  The music was written by Lynn.

  The resume was sent through by Mari.