Help with the Active and Passive Voice of Verbs

Here are tips on using the active and passive voice from Simple Steps to Sentence Sense.

Whenever possible, use verbs in the active voice. The passive voice is weak and uses unnecessary words. 

“A captain has been appointed by the team” 

is weaker than 

“The team has appointed a captain.”  

Sentences with verbs in the passive voice use "is, am, are, was, were, be, or been" as a helping verb with the past participle. Sentences in the passive voice often contain the preposition “by.”

To change a sentence into the active voice do the following:

• Remove the form of the to be helping verb. Be sure to keep the tense of the verb the same as it was.
• Remove the word by. 
• Flip the ends of the sentence.

Step 2 in SimpleSteps to Sentence Sense is all about finding the verb and the verb phrase.

Click here to watch a video explaining Step 2.

Once your students master the use of the verb in a sentence, they will become better writers.

Click here for a complete unit on verbs that will make it easy for your students to use them correctly.

Click here to access a mini-lesson from pages from the All About Verbs exercise that you can assign in Google Drive. Click here to access the answers to the exercise.

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Use the Active Voice

When writing simple sentences, learn to use verbs in the active voice as much as possible.

Although there are occasions when the passive voice is necessary, using it usually slows the sentence down. (Verbs in the passive voice use a form of "to be" as a helping verb (is, am, are, was, were, be, been, or being) in front of the past participle.

Examples: Kim was hit by Kerry. (This sentence is in the passive voice.) Kerry hit Kim. (This sentence is in the active voice.) 

To eliminate the passive voice: 
1) Remove the helping verb (is, am, are, was, were, be, been, or being.) 
2) Remove the preposition "by," if the sentence has one.
3) Flip/flop the ends of the sentence. (What you are really doing is switching the subject and the direct object.)

Here is an example of how to change a sentence in the passive voice to a sentence in the active voice.

The man was given an award by the service club.

1) Remove the form of "to be" used as a helping verb.The man was given an award by the service club.
2) Remove the preposition "by" (If it appears in the sentence.)The man was given an award by the service club.3) Flip/flop the ends of the sentence

Passive Voice - The man was given an award by the service club.” Active Voice - “The service club gave the man an award.”

Note: Be sure that you do not change the tense of the verb when you change it from passive voice to active voice.Both "was given" and "gave" are in the past tense.

Here's a product your students will enjoy. All About Verbs will help your students understand how to recognize and use verbs effectively. This product has 25 pages of instruction and 13 exercises.

Enjoy!