Active and Passive Voice Examples For All Tenses
Table of Contents
Active Voice
In the verb, which is one of the most important grammatical topics in English, the roof appears in two different forms as the active voice and the passive voice. It is impossible for us to tell you what the active voice is without telling you what the passive voice is. Let’s take a look at two different examples that we have given below:
Benjamin greeted his friend Alice, whom he had not seen for years, at the airport.
Alice was greeted at the airport by her friend Benjamin, whom she had not met for years.
When we take a look at these two sentence examples, we see that both sentences have a different sequence and meaning from each other. Although what is described in the two sentences is that Alice is waiting at the airport by Benjamin, the two sentences are told from completely different perspectives. At first glance, you may not have understood what is different, what is different is the subjects. The subject in the first sentence is Benjamin, while the subject in the second sentence is Alice. While Active Voice is used in the first sentence, Passive Voice is used in the second sentence.
Passive Voice
The roof of the verb, which is one of the most common mistakes in English, is a grammar subject consisting of two sub-titles, the passive voice, and the active voice. In the sentences containing the active voice, it is known whom the subject acting as the predicate is, while in the passive voice it is not known who the subject is, you cannot reach the information of whom the subject is based on the verb. In addition, inactive voice sentences the action is affected by the subject, while in passive voice sentences the subject is affected by the action. Let’s reinforce the subject by examining the examples we have given below together:
- I accidentally broke my mom’s favorite vase. (The person who broke the vase can be understood when the question “who?” is asked to the verb.)
- My mom’s favorite vase was accidentally broken by me. (Here, when you ask the verb “who?” you will not get an answer. This sentence is a passive voice sentence.)
What is the Difference Between Active Voice and Passive Voice?
If Active Voice is used in a sentence, we can say that the person doing the action or the action is the subject. In the Benjamin example we gave just above, Benjamin was the person who did the work in the first sentence. In other words, the sentence that Benjamin was the subject of was Active Voice. In the first sentence, Alice functions as an object and is completely affected by the action of the subject, that is, Benjamin.
In the second sentence, where we say that Alice was greeted by Benjamin, the subject of the sentence became the object in the first sentence and our action became “waited” instead of “waited”. The fact that the subject is Alice, not Benjamin, and the verb undergoes such a change, shows us that Passive Voice is used.
Let’s reinforce this topic by taking a look at the Passive Voice and Active Voice examples below:
- I made a salad for dinner. (Active Voice)
- The salad was made for dinner. (Passive Voice)
Here are Active and Passive Voice Examples For All Tenses
| Tense | Active | Passive |
| Present simple | Reporters write news reports | News reports are written by reporters |
| Present continuous | Michael is baking a brownie | A brownie is being baked by Michael. |
| Past simple | The company hired new workers last year. | New workers were hired by the company last year. |
| Past continuous | The salesman was helping the customer when the thief came into the store. | The customer was being helped by the salesman when the thief came into the sotre. |
| Present perfect | They have already discussed the book. | The book has already been discussed. |
| Past perfect | He had delivered the letters. | The letters had been delivered. |
| Future simple | The company will hire new workers. | New workers will be hired by the company. |
| Infinitive | She has to deliver the letters. | The letters have to be delivered. |
| Modals | She must deliver the letters. | The letters must be delivered. |
