#ACTIVE VOICE VS PASSIVE VOICE HOW TO#

Check out that pop quiz I gave you–do you see how ‘liked to nest’ is a little more flavorful than ‘there were snakes living?’ Neither of them is grammatically incorrect, but one of them is a little stronger.Īctive voice makes you clear up the extra words bogging down your sentences, which means you’ll be able to focus on your word choice and really hone your style. When should we use active voice?Īctive voice is stronger, it’s clearer, and it forces you to look for a verb to drive your action.

#ACTIVE VOICE VS PASSIVE VOICE HOW TO#

We’ll talk more about how to make your passive sentences active in a minute. There were snakes living in the riverbank.ĭid you guess the second one? If so, you’re correct! Pop quiz! Which of the below sentences is in active voice? Here’s a little complex sentence for you–here, we have the subject “I” performing the verb “thought.” I thought I could go to the movies, but I didn’t have enough money. Then, notice we have the same setup–Jenny, our subject, performing the verb. Above, we’ve got a dependent clause (nervous about his absence), which sets the scene for our action. We don’t necessarily have to start a sentence with our subject to write in active voice. Nervous about his absence, Jenny called Nick’s cell phone. We also have the object of that action, Anthony, but for active voice, we’re really only worried about our subject performing our verb. Mark, the subject, is performing the verb, which is kick.

The above sentence is a straightforward example of active voice. Let me give you a few examples, so you’ve got a clearer idea of what I’m talking about. Learning to write in active voice early on will help you knock your tone and style out of the park, since you won’t be struggling under the weight of extra clauses. Remember when your high school teacher took off five points every time you used a ‘be’ verb? Just me? Well, anyway, there was a pretty good reason for it. When reading active voice, you’re generally avoiding the word ‘be’ (and all its conjugations). It’s generally much clearer, more concise, and direct than passive voice–active voice has direction, drive, and intent. 6 How to Transform Passive Voice to Active Voice What is Active Voice?Īctive voice is when the subject of a sentence does the action described.

Active voice vs passive voice