What is the passive voice?

1. What is the passive voice? We usually use the active voice, but passive voice is often used for particular reasons: The person who has done the graffiti is not known, so the sentence is written in the passive voice. Graffiti had been scrawled all over the wall. It is not important who counted the votes, but instead the fact that they have been counted is important. The votes had been counted. The animal attacking its prey is made to seem more innocent by using the passive voice. Themouse was pounced on. In the active voice, the cat sounds aggressive. Thecat pounced on the mouse.

2. How do we write sentences in the passive voice? 6Fwon the game. The game was won. Passive Active The thing doing the action is at the beginning The thing doing the action is missing or at the end. Who won the game?

3. Notice the changes? 6Fwon the game. The game was won by 6F. Active Passive verb form has more than one word In passive sentences you will often see the word ‘by’ at the end to say who did it – but not always Active verb form

4. Another example… Mrs Deaspresented certificates. Certificates were presented. Active Passive The thing doing the action is at the beginning The thing doing the action is missing or at the end

5. Notice the changes… Mrs Deaspresented certificates. Certificates were presented by Mrs Deas. Passive verb form has more than one word Active The thing doing the action is at the beginning In passive sentences you will often see the word ‘by’ at the end to say who did it – but not always

6. The subject of the sentence changes when you change to the passive voice Active voice: The cat was chasing the mouse.In this sentence, 'the cat' is the subject, 'was chasing' is the verb and 'the mouse' is the object. Passive voice: The mouse was being chased by the cat.In this sentence 'the mouse' has become the subject which is having something done to it by the cat.

7. Top hints… Certificates were presented by Mrs Deas. You can tell it’s passive when... • The verb form has more than one word • The word by appears in the sentence • Whoever is doing the action is missing or hidden at the end of the sentence