Active and Passive Voice

Common Errors in English with Samuel Alimi

Only two voices are recognized in the English language: active and passive. To fully understand them, we can use the word “voice” to refer to the subject’s position in a sentence – whether as the doer or receiver of an action. According to the Cambridge Dictionary, the active voice is “the grammatical form in which the subject performs the action of the verb.” In simpler terms, the active voice indicates that the noun or pronoun, which is the subject of a sentence, is the one performing the action.

Examples:
Samuel Alimi wrote an interesting article on active and passive voices in the Peoples Daily Newspaper. (Active)
The minister protested against government policies during his meeting with the congregation. (Active)
The boy drove Segun’s car to the party without his permission. (Active)
In the examples above, “Samuel Alimi”, “the minister,” and “the boy” are the initiators of the actions in the sentences.
Other examples extracted from the Merriam Webster Dictionary include:
The kids cleaned the kitchen.
We found an old car in the woods.

In contrast, the passive voice changes the subject’s position to inactive by using a prepositional phrase (by + doer). This can be adopted if you do not want to disclose the identity of the doer or if the doer is not important for recognition.

Study how the sentences mentioned above are converted to passive voice.

An interesting article on active and passive voices was written by Samuel Alimi in the Peoples Daily Newspaper.

Government policies were protested against by the minister during his meeting with the congregation.

Segun’s car was driven to the party without his permission by the boy.

The kitchen has been cleaned by the kids.
An old car was found in the woods by us.
Sometimes, the writer may decide to shift the focus from the doer of the action to the action itself.
Review the following sentences:
An interesting article on active and passive voices was recently published.
Segun’s car was driven to the party with his permission.

In the example sentences above, the doers of the actions have been omitted, shifting the focus to the actions themselves.

Here are more examples of both active and passive voices.
Please note that the rules mentioned here are not comprehensive. They have been chosen specifically for today’s class.

Present tense:
Active voice: Femi sweeps the market every Monday.
Passive voice: Every Monday, the market is swept by Femi.
Active voice: Sola cleans the car once a week.
Passive voice: Once a week, the car is cleaned by Sola.

Present in present:
Active voice: The chairman is addressing the members of the party.
Passive voice: The members of the party are being addressed by the chairman.
Active voice: The principal is rebuking the students for shouting.
Passive voice: The students are being rebuked by the principal for shouting.

Past tense:
Active voice: Ola cooked the food.
Passive voice: The food was cooked by Ola.
Active voice: Eze and Aishat beat the child.
Passive voice: The child was beaten by Eze and Aishat.

Past in present:
Active voice: The lady has eaten the biscuits.
Passive voice: The biscuits have been eaten by the lady.
Active voice: The writer has eulogized the commissioner for her wonderful work.
Passive voce: The commissioner has been eulogized by the writer for her wonderful work.
Past in past:
Active voice: The president had secured a loan before he left office.
Passive voice: The loan had been secured by the president before he left office.
Active voice: My mother had taken my brother to school before I arrived.
Passive voice: My brother had been taken to school by my mother before I arrived.
Future (will)
Active voice: Sam will finish writing the assignment
Passive voice: The assignment will be finished by Sam.
Future in present:

Active voice: Tola is going to buy a new pair of shoes.
Passive voice: A new pair of shoes is going to be bought by Tola.

Modality (would):
Active voice: I knew the economic policies would affect the middle class.
Passive voice: I knew the middle class would be affected by the economic policies.

Modality (would always):
Active voice: My sister would always shout at me.
Passive voice: I would always be shouted at by my sister.

Assignment

Choose the correct answer to each of the following questions:

1. In _____ voice, the initiator can be concealed. (a) active (b) passive (c) grammar
2. There are ____ voices in the English language. (a) 2 (b) 7 (c) 10
3. The goat was _____ by the herdsmen. (a) hit (b) hitted (c) hitting
Kindly forward your answers to 07049203179 or samueltolulopealimi@gmail.com.
Names of those who answered the last questions correctly:
Johnson Philip, Olive Alimi, Precious Victory, Mohammed Aishat, Sani Rasheed, Owolabi Okikiola, Nwachukwu Innocent, Abdullahi Azeez, Eze Bright, Babatunde Johnson, Ojeka Victoria, Odumeko Fatima, Ibrahim Busola, Oluwagbenga Sunday, Isaac Nelson and Lawal Babalola.