Active Voice And Passive Voice

By Abhishek Tomar on Aug 20, 2009 with Comments 0

English verbs are either written in Active Voice or Passive Voice. How to identify which is active voice or which is passive voice.

Active Voice

In Active Voice the subject of the sentence do the activity. Such as

Example
The hungry student ate the pizza

Passive Voice

In Passive Voice the action is performed on the subject of the sentence. Such as

Example
The pizza WAS EATEN by the hungry student.
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Example
Passive : It HAS BEEN DECIDED by Mike that he will not attend the college
Active: Mike has decided not to attend the college

Always remember that passive sentences are always long and confusing. Passive sentences are offend confusing in terms of finding the subject. As told  before GMAT examinees always prefer brevity and complex sentences to confuse the examinees, so what’s the solution for that- always choose the simple and direct sentences. this will avoid unnecessary wordiness and confusion.

Exception Of PASSIVE SENTENCES

Only transitive verbs are written in the passive form. What is Transitive verbs? Verbs that take the direct object is known as transitive verb. Verbs that do not take object should never be written in the passive form.

Incorrect : The aliens WERE ARRIVED on the EARTH in the 24 century
Correct: The aliens ARRIVED on the EARTH in 24 century.

Incorrect: After they advertised, sales WERE INCREASED by 24%
Correct : After they advertised, sales advertised by 24%