English Grammar Practice Test: Active and Passive Voice — Flashcards

Changing sentences from active voice to passive voice and from passive voice to active voice.

Active voice is when the subject of a sentence performs an action. Passive voice is when an action is performed on the subject of a sentence. 

Here are some examples of active voice: "Betty bought eggs at the store" - "Anne won an award"

Here are some examples of passive voice: "Eggs were bought by Betty at the store" - "An award was won by Anne"

Active voice is usually clearer than passive voice. Active voice is used in most academic writing, when you want to be clear, and when you want to be concise. 
 

Here are some tips for identifying active and passive voice:
Active voice: The actor comes before the action in a sentence.
Passive voice: The actor comes after the action or when the actor is completely absent from the sentence.
Passive voice: Passive voice verbs always have the helping verb "be".
Passive voice: To spot the passive voice, look for a phrase that contains a "to be" verb, like "was", "has been", or "will be". 

Here are some tips for changing a verb from active to passive voice:
The subject and object change places.
The main verb in passive voice is the past participle form of the verb.
Passive voice phrases, as a rule, always use the third form of the verb.
Auxiliary verb 'be' (am, is are, was, were) is added before the past participle according to the tense of the verb. 

To change a sentence from passive voice to active voice:
Identify the subject and verb of the sentence.
Determine who is performing the action.
Move the subject to the beginning of the sentence.
Use a verb to connect the subject to the object.
Remove the “be” verb from the sentence.
Change the form of the main verb if needed.
Place the object of the preposition “by” from the passive sentence into the subject slot.