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Icon for miamioh.eduMiami University · May 3, 2024

Active and Passive Voice

Two TVs were stolen ["be" helping verb but main verb ending in "en"] from the local gas stations last night. To switch from active voice to passive voice, place the doer of the action into the subject position and remove the passive "be" helping verb.
Icon for www.sfu.caSimon Fraser University · Nov 18, 2021

Passive Voice and Raising

The passive voice is the marked voice: [+Passive], and the active voice is the unmarked or default voice: [-Passive]. Virtually every verb may occur in the active voice--indeed some of them must: 1. John ate the potato. 2. Some birds are flying.
Icon for www.unr.eduunr.edu · Oct 17, 2023

Guidelines for clarity and concision

Sentence using active voice: Captain America defeated the Red Skull. Sentence using passive voice: The Red Skull was defeated ... Instead, their feast is. The verb in sentence 1 is also less direct due to its position at the end of the sentence, but ...
Vanguard · 6d

Power in the Pen: Why your voice choice matters, by Ruth Oji

Ever wonder why some academic papers put you to sleep faster than a two-hour lecture after an all-nighter, while others keep you surprisingly engaged? The secret might be hiding in plain sight: it’s all about voice — active versus passive voice,
Icon for www.msn.comMSN · 15d

The Great Passive Voice Panic: Why Everyone (Even Grammar Experts) Gets It Wrong

Active voice would give you a sentence like the ... And, when given the opportunity, Orwell chose to use passive verbs 20 percent of the time in his essay “Politics and the English language.”
Icon for www.nature.comNature · Nov 29, 2021

Effective Writing

Use your current topic — that is, what you are writing about — as the grammatical subject of your sentence (see Verbs: Choosing between active and passive voice). When writing a complex ...
Icon for www.acs.orgC&EN · May 14, 2022

Active vs Passive Voice in Scientific Writing

Which is the better way to compose your research; the direct, bold language of active voice, or the objective, nuanced tone of passive voice? We’ve gathered two expert wordsmiths from the world of academia to share the pros and cons of each. Join us as ...
Icon for www.brandeis.eduBrandeis University · Nov 19, 2021

Active and Passive Voice

We refer to a sentence as being in the "active voice" when the subject is performing the action of the sentence (the verb). A sentence is in the "passive voice" when the subject is being acted upon by the verb. For example, the following sentence is in the ...
Icon for www.bbc.co.ukBBC · Feb 7, 2023

How to use the active or passive voice

However, in each pair one sentence uses the active voice and one uses the passive voice ... the race' performs the action described by the verb 'lifted'. The subject 'the doctor' performs the ...
Icon for www.rit.eduRochester Institute of Technology · Aug 23, 2016

Passive Voice - Stative

In the exercise below, you are to distinguish between true passive voice constructions and stative passive constructions. After reading each sentence, record your choice by clicking on either the word TRUE or on the word STATIVE. You will then be shown the ...
Icon for www.sfu.caSimon Fraser University · Nov 6, 2021

Passive Voice

1. The voice of the verb is distinct from its tense. Don't confuse the passive voice with the past tense. (Sentence 2 happens to be in the past tense, but 3 is not; both 2 and 3 are in the passive voice.) 2. The passive voice uses more words than the ...
Icon for www.rit.eduRochester Institute of Technology · Jan 24, 2024

Passive Voice

The term “voice,” as a linguistic category, indicates the relationship between the subject of a sentence and its verb. In English, there are two voices--active and passive. If the subject of a sentence performs the action of the verb, the verb is said ...