In many cases, especially in stories involving crime, the fact of the crime being committed, and whom it was committed against, is known before who committed it becomes clear. The passive voice allows for a shorter headline, but more pertinently, it puts up front information that is known. When news media reports on incidents of crime, for example, they will often use headlines that feature the passive voice: “Man (Is) Attacked on Elm Street” instead of “Person Attacks Man on Elm Street.” The differences between active and passive voice come up as a subject for discussion in criticism of news coverage.

(There is also the mediopassive voice, which is a whole other animal that we discuss in this article.) In the News Passive voice: An old car was found in the woods. Passive voice: The kitchen has been cleaned.Īctive voice: We found an old car in the woods. It is also helpful for instances when the doer of an action (also known as the agent) is unknown.Īctive voice: The kids have cleaned the kitchen. But it is useful for those instances when you want to emphasize the fact of an action having taken place rather than who performed the action. Passive voice often gets criticized as a weak and evasive form of expression. The passive voice is often distinguished by its use of a linking verb form (e.g., was, had been) followed by another verb in its past participle form (e.g., 'I have been given an opportunity'). Passive voice: The lamp was knocked over by Jerry.īoth sentences describe the same action taking place-Jerry making contact with a lamp and causing it to fall over-with the first sentence making Jerry the subject and the second making the lamp the subject. The passive voice makes the subject the person or thing acted on or affected by the action represented by the verb.Īctive voice: Jerry knocked over the lamp. The active voice asserts that the person or thing represented by the grammatical subject performs the action represented by the verb. In English class, we are taught the difference between active and passive voice.

Active to passive voice online