Active and passive voice

Where’s all the baking soda gone?! Uhm, I think the baking soda… was… used for a science experiment. A science experiment?!… But who would be doing science experiments with my baking supplies?… Let’s take a closer look at Jenny’s answer. “The baking soda was used for a science experiment.” Somehow, Jenny has managed not to say who used the baking soda! She’s avoided blame with… grammar! But how, exactly?

Jenny could have said: “Michael and I used the baking soda.” That’s often how we construct sentences. It follows this order: subject, plus verb (performed by the subject), plus object. This is an example of a sentence in the active voice. In the active voice, the subject carries out an action. Michael and Jenny used the baking soda.

But Jenny’s answer, “The baking soda was used”, follows a different order: subject, plus some form of the verb to be, plus past participle (that’s usually a verb ending in -ed). Jenny’s answer is an example of a sentence in the passive voice. In the passive voice, the subject receives an action. The baking soda was used. Sometimes, the passive voice is a handy way to leave out a certain subject, like I!

Let’s look at another example. “Diva chews the bone.” Is this in the active or passive voice? Diva performs the action — she is the subject of our sentence, “chews” is a verb performed by the subject, and “the bone” is the object. Here we have the active voice! How would this sentence look in the passive voice? The passive voice, remember, uses this order: subject, plus some form of the verb to be, plus past participle We know that in the passive voice, the subject receives an action… so our subject becomes “the bone”.

Next, we need some form of the verb to be, plus a past participle… “chews” becomes “is chewed”. “The bone is chewed.” Aha! We’ve formed the passive voice! But what if we do want to know who or what does an action? Is there any way to do this with the passive voice? Yes!

Let’s look at this sentence: “The bone is chewed by Diva.” Here, we’ve added “by Diva” to show who carried out the bone-chewing. “By” is a preposition, and we call “by Diva” a prepositional phrase. Prepositional phrases are optional in the passive voice; the sentence makes sense with or without it. Let’s go back to our first example. “The baking soda was used.” How can we add a prepositional phrase here? We can add “by [...] Michael and me”: “The baking soda was used by Michael and me”. Now we have a sentence in the passive voice with a prepositional phrase.

In English, we have two main options for voice: active and passive And the passive voice can be used with an optional prepositional phrase to say who or what does an action. Often, the active voice leads to stronger, more straightforward writing. “Diva chews the bone” is simple and easy to follow; “The bone is chewed by Diva” is awkward to read, and wordy. But the passive voice can be useful when we want to focus on the person or thing affected by an action… or, when we want to leave out the do-er of an action altogether... Isn’t that right, Jenny?