The Passive Voice
A sentence in the passive voice is one in which the object of an active voice sentence becomes the subject in a passive voice sentence. When we want to say who or what caused the action we can use the word “by”.
- Charles Dickens wrote “A Tale of Two Cities”. (active voice)
(object) - “A Tale of Two Cities” was written by Charles Dickens. (passive voice) (subject)
- Honda is building a new car. (active voice)
(object) - VA new car is being built by Honda. (passive voice)
(subject) - My grandfather started our family company. (active voice)
(object) - Our family company was started by my grandfather. (passive voice)
(subject) - A hurricane destroyed the village. (active voice)
(object) - The village was destroyed by a hurricane. (passive voice)
(subject) - Christopher Columbus discovered America in 1492. (active voice)
(object) - America was discovered by Christopher Columbus in 1492. (passive voice)
(subject) - The wind blows the leaves to the ground. (active voice)
(object) - The leaves are blown to the ground by the wind. (passive voice)
(subject) - Many people visit the Empire State Building every year. (active voice)
(object) - The Empire State Building is visited by many people every year. (passive voice)
(subject) - Americans hold presidential elections every four years. (active voice)
(object) - Presidential elections are held by Americans every four years. (passive voice)
(subject) - Italy organized the World Cup in 1990. (active voice)
(object) - The World Cup was organized by Italy in 1990. (passive voice)
(subject) - Russia put into orbit the world’s first satellite. (active voice)
(object) - The world’s first satellite was pu into orbit by Russia. (passive voice)