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📘 Watch the foot. The ball has not left yet.

Watch the foot come down. The ball is still on the grass, and the person attached to that shoe is the one doing the kicking. English already has a name for a sentence that works this way. The player kicked the ball. Purdue's writing lab put

5
lessons
~25 min
to learn
Adults
level
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What you’ll learn

  1. The kicker sits in frontRecognize active voice: the subject performs the action, in the shape A does B.Active voice puts the doer in the subject's chair. The player kicked the ball. If you can ask who did it and the subject answers, the sentence is active.
  2. The ball takes the subject's chairForm passive voice with a form of be plus a past participle, and tell it apart from other uses of be.Passive voice makes the receiver the subject. The ball was kicked. Be alone is not enough: He is short and She was falling are not passive.
  3. How to flip the sentenceChange a transitive active sentence into passive voice, and see why intransitive verbs cannot flip.Slide the object into the subject chair, park the old subject in an optional by-phrase, and build be plus a past participle. No object means no flip.
  4. When the doer steps offstageChoose passive on purpose when the doer is unknown, unimportant, or less interesting than the receiver, and notice when it hides blame.The house was built in 1911 is honest. Mistakes were made can be a dodge. Active stays the default because it is clearer and shorter.
  5. Was walking is not was kickedTell past progressive from passive, then go find both voices on a real page.Was dancing is still active. Had been stolen is passive. The test is what follows be: an -ing the subject is doing, or a participle landing on the subject.

Questions this course answers

A friend writes The ball kicked the player to mean a shot on goal. What is the better active sentence?

In active voice the subject performs the action. The player is the doer, so the player has to sit in the subject's chair: The player kicked the ball.

In your own words, why does The player kicked the ball mean something different from The ball was kicked by the player?

Both sentences report the same kick. Active makes the player the subject. Passive makes the ball the subject and parks the player after by.

Match each sentence to its voice

If the subject does the verb, the sentence is active. If the subject receives the verb, and you can see be plus a past participle, the sentence is passive.

Choose the helper that belongs in this passive sentence.

Passive needs a form of be plus the past participle. Was kicked is that stack. Kicking would build a progressive, not a passive.

Put Towson's steps in order to change The player kicked the ball into passive voice

Object becomes subject, old subject becomes a by-phrase, then be plus the past participle. The last step is the check.

Which sentence cannot be changed into passive voice?

Sits has no direct object, so there is nothing to slide into the subject chair. Towson and LibreTexts both say intransitive verbs cannot become passive.

Grounded in trusted sources

  • Purdue OWL, Active and Passive Voice, https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/academic_writing/active_and_passive_voice/index.html
  • Purdue OWL, Active Versus Passive Voice, https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/academic_writing/active_and_passive_voice/active_versus_passive_voice.html
  • Purdue OWL, Changing Passive to Active Voice, https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/academic_writing/active_and_passive_voice/changing_passive_to_active_voice.html
  • LibreTexts, Introduction to College Composition (Lumen), 25.2 Active and Passive Voice, https://human.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Composition/Introductory_Composition/Introduction_to_College_Composition_(Lumen)/04%3A_Grammar/25%3A_Voice/25.2%3A_Active_and_Passive_Voice
  • LibreTexts, Synthesis (Krause), 5.5 GRAMMAR: Using the Passive Voice, https://human.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Languages/English_as_a_Second_Language/Synthesis_-_Integrated_Writing_Skills_for_Advanced_Students_of_ESOL_(Krause)/05%3A_Unit_5/5.05%3A_GRAMMAR-_Using_the_Passive_Voice
  • University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Writing Center, Passive Voice, https://writingcenter.unc.edu/tips-and-tools/passive-voice/
  • Towson University Online Writing Support, Active/Passive Voice, https://webapps.towson.edu/ows/activepass.htm
  • Common Core State Standards Initiative, English Language Arts Standards, Language, Grade 8, L.8.1.b and L.8.3.a, https://www.thecorestandards.org/ELA-Literacy/L/8/

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