ACTIVE VOICE
Most sentences are active. This means that the thing doing the action is the subject of the sentence. For example:
The professor teaches students
The subject verb object
Rob cleans his car
(The thing doing the action + verb + thing receiving the action)
When do we use active voice?
If the subject of the sentence is performing the action, we use active voice. The active voice makes it clear what the subject is doing and removes uncertainty and ambiguity.
|
Tense |
Active |
Passive |
|
Simple present |
Once a week Tom cleans the house |
Once a week the house is cleaned by Tom |
|
Present continuous |
Sarah is writing a letter |
A letter is being written by Sarah |
|
Simple past
|
Sam repaired the car |
The car was repaired by Sam |
|
Past continuous |
The salesman was helping the customer |
The customer was being helped by the salesman |
|
Present perfect |
Many tourists have visited that castle |
That castle has been visited by many tourists |
|
Past perfect |
John had repaired his motorcycle |
The motorcycle had been repaired by John |
|
Present perfect continuous |
Recently, Henry has been doing the work |
Recently, the work has been done by Henry |
|
Past perfect continuous |
The chef had been preparing the meal for 10 hours |
For 10 hours the meal had been prepared by the chef |
|
Simple future (will) |
Someone will finish the work by 5pm. |
The work will be finished by someone by 5pm |
|
Simple future (be going to) |
Sally is going to make a wonderful dinner tonight |
A beautiful dinner is going to be made by Sally tonight |
|
Used to |
William used to pay the bills |
The bills used to be paid by William |
|
Would always |
My mother would always make soup on Saturday. |
Soup would always be made by my mother on Saturday. |
