In English, verbs can take an Active or Passive Voice. In order to understand voice, we must understand the difference between subjects and agents. The subject is what a sentence is about. The agent is the person or thing that performs the action. In Active Voice, the subject and the agent are the same. In other words, in Active Voice, the subject performs the action.
- Subject + verb + object
Daniel cleaned his room.
In the above example, the sentence is about Daniel; therefore, Daniel is the subject of the sentence. Also, Daniel does the action (clean); therefore, Daniel is the agent. The subject and the agent are both Daniel.
Passive
We can also use the Passive Voice. This is where the subject of the sentence is also the object of the verb. This means that the subject does not do the action, but it receives the action. In other words, the subject of the sentence is not the agent of the verb.
- Subject + be + past participle + (by agent)
The book was released in 2009. (by a publishing company)
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