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Active & Passive Voice

Active and Passive Voice

Intermediate 1 min read 5-question quiz

In the active voice the subject does the action. In the passive voice the subject receives the action.

Active: The chef cooked the meal.
Passive: The meal was cooked by the chef.

How to form the passive

Use to be (in the right tense) + the past participle: is made, was built, will be written, has been finished.

When to use the passive

  • The doer is unknown or unimportant: “The window was broken.”
  • The result matters more than the doer: “The bridge was built in 1990.”

In most everyday writing the active voice is clearer and shorter.

Practice

Check your understanding

5 questions · pass mark 70%

1Which sentence is passive?
2What is the active form of "The window was broken by Ali"?
3Which is the passive form of "They built the bridge in 1990"?
4The passive voice is useful when:
5The letter was ___ yesterday.
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