Active and passive voice sentences describe the same action in different ways. Active voice is generally preferable for writing and formal speaking because it is clear and consice.
People tend to fall into passive voice very easily when they are trying to describe something or tell a story. Lecturing professors and off-the-cuff speakers are notorious for stringing together long stretches of prose that is entirely passive.
How do you tell the difference between passive and active voice when you hear it?
The linguistic explanation is that active voice sentences have a subject-verb construction, while passive sentences have a verb-subject construction.
Active: The dog bit the man.
Passive: The man was bitten by the dog.
Both sentences mean the same thing, but say it very differently.
One way to spot a passive sentence is to look for a series of unnecessary words. "The man was bitten by the dog" uses 7 words to say the same thing that "The dog bit the man" accomplished in 5. It doesn't seem like a huge difference in a short example, but it can get really cumbersome in a more complex sentence.
Passive voice also tends to make the listener wait until the entire sentence is over before the meaning is clear. Active voice tells you who did what right away. You can remove the linking words from an active sentence and still understand what is being said: dog bit man.
Take out the links from a passive sentence and it is a little strange: man bitten dog.
In some cases, passive sentences leave out the subject entirely. "The man was bitten" doesn't say who - or what - did the biting.
Understanding the difference between active and passive voice can help you communicate more effectively in many different situations. Learn more at http://tinyurl.com/5cc99h.
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