man fixing a dishwasher in a kitchen

Our broken dishwasher is finally being fixed.

Passive Use

In grammar, the person or thing that does the action is called the agent of the verb:

The man is playing the guitar.

  • verb = play
  • agent = The man

Birds fly in the sky.

  • verb = fly
  • agent = Birds

Those shoes cost a lot of money.

  • verb = cost
  • agent = Those shoes 

In grammar, when we put the agent in the position of the subject of the sentence, this is called the Active Voice.

The Passive Voice is used when changing the focus of the sentence from the agent to the object of the verb.  To do this, we put the object in the position of the subject of the sentence:

active and passive

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Exercise

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