How to use Active voice in English

The Active voice in English is an extremely important grammatical knowledge that you need to master in order to conquer IELTS, TOEIC, SAT, and other exams. So, "What is the Active voice?", "How to convert an Active voice sentence into a Passive voice sentence?". Let's explore the details below with PREP!

I. What is the Active voice in English?

The Active voice is a sentence structure where the subject is the one performing the action. The focus is on the agent (the one doing the action).

General structure:

S + V + O 

Here are Active voice examples:

• My mother played badminton with her friends yesterday.

• I study English every day. 

II. Differences between Active voice and Passive voice

Let's explore the difference between Active voice and Passive voice sentences in the table below!

III. How to convert Active voice to Passive voice

Below, PREP will guide you through the steps to convert an Active voice sentence into a Passive voice sentence in English.

• Step 1: Identify the object in the Active voice sentence -> this will become the subject in the Passive voice.

• Step 2: Determine the tense used in the Active voice -> convert the verb to the Passive voice form.

• Step 3: Turn the subject of the Active voice into the object in the Passive voice, adding "by" before it. Note that for unspecified subjects, you can omit them, such as "them", "people", etc.

Here is a table showing the formulas to convert Active voice to Passive voice across different tenses in English:

Some notes when converting to Passive voice in English:

• Intransitive verbs in English - verbs that do not require an object will not be used in the Passive voice. For example: My mother's leg hurts. 

• When the subject in the sentence is responsible for performing the action, it also cannot be converted to Passive voice. For example: Anna takes charge of picking children up. 

• In the case of the phrase "to be/ get + V3", it does not carry a passive meaning in English, but rather refers to the state, situation that the subject in the sentence is experiencing / referring to the subject doing something.For example: John got promoted to manager last month. 

• It should be noted that in Passive voice sentences, the verb to be is the element with the most variation in tense between the active and Passive voice sentences. Let’s take a look at Passive and Active voice examples:

  • My brother will paint his bike red tomorrow. ➞ My brother’s bike will be painted tomorrow. 

  • My brother painted his bike red yesterday. ➞ My brother’s bike was painted yesterday. 

IV. Exercises on Active voice in English with answers

To better understand Active voice in English, let's complete the exercise section below with PREP!

1. Exercise

Exercise 1: Convert the following Active voice sentences to Passive voice sentences

1. The chef cooks the meal.

2. Anna is writing a letter.

3. They will deliver the package tomorrow.

4. The company has launched a new product.

5. The manager gave the employees a bonus.

Exercise 2: Conjugate the verbs in parentheses.

1. The plants______(water) by the gardener every day.

2. The lesson______(teach) by the teacher yesterday.

3. The new software______(release) by the company the next day.

4. The project______(complete) by them for 4 hours.

5. The book______(read) by the students at 8 am yesterday morning.

2. Answers

The above covers all the grammatical knowledge about Active voice in English that PREP wants to share with you. Let’s follow PREP to get more useful English knowledge updates!