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Activity 3.11
Lesson: Active and Passive Voice Learning Targets
• Use verbs in the active and passive voice to achieve particular effects (e.g., emphasizing the actor or the action).
• Choose language that expresses ideas precisely and concisely, recognizing and eliminating wordiness and redundancy.
Active and Passive Voice
Voice tells you whether the subject of the verb performs or receives the action of the verb. If the subject performs the action, the verb is in active voice. In passive voice, the subject of the verb receives the action or is the object of the action.
Active voice: The girl sings a song. [The subject, girl, performs the action of singing.]
Passive voice: The song is sung by the girl. [The subject, song, does not perform the action of singing. It is
the object of the action, which means that it receives the action.]
A verb in the passive voice includes a form of the verb be, a past participle of a verb, and any needed helping verbs. Here are examples of sentences in each tense, showing active-voice and passive-voice verbs.
Tense
Passive Voice
Active Voice
Present
The song is sung. The songs are sung.
The girl sings the song. The girls sing the song.
Past
The song was sung. The songs were sung.
The girl (or girls) sang the song.
Future
The song (or songs) will be sung.
The girl (or girls) will sing the song.
Present Perfect
The song has been sung. The songs have been sung.
The girl has sung the song. The girls have sung the song.
Past Perfect
The song (or songs) had been sung.
The girl (or girls) had sung the song.
Future Perfect
The song (or songs) will have been sung.
The girl (or girls) will have sung the song.
Grammar Activities • Unit 3 5
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