Download Active and Passive Voice and more Exercises English in PDF only on Docsity! ACTIVE VS. PASSIVE VOICE The active voice is an ideal sentence structure because it organizes information in a logical way: subject, verb, object. Here is an example of the active voice: Achilles rejects Agamemnon’s offer. S V O In this sentence, the subject (Achilles) appears before both the verb (rejects) and the object (Agamemnon’s offer). The passive voice, by contrast, reverses this order, so that the object comes first, then the verb, then the subject. This is an example of the passive voice: Agamemnon’s offer is rejected by Achilles. O V S This passive construction may be grammatically correct, but it is stylistically much weaker than the first example. In the passive voice, the subject (Achilles) is buried at the end of the sentence, while the object (Agamemnon’s offer) is given priority at the front of the sentence. The verb (is rejected by) now requires three words instead of just one (rejects). In some ways, the passive voice reflects a backwards way of organizing information. The passive voice is even more of a problem when it is used without any subject whatsoever. This is called the impersonal passive voice. Here is an example: Agamemnon’s offer is rejected. O V Now the subject (Achilles) is entirely invisible to the reader, who will have to determine the subject either by knowing the background of the story or by determining it from the context of the essay. Whenever you can, do not force your reader do this kind of work. The occasional construction in the passive or impersonal passive is perfectly grammatically correct (even stylistically preferable in some cases), but it should be avoided in general. Exercises. Rewrite the following sentences in the active voice. 1. The javelin was thrown by the Olympian. 2. The epic poem was understood by the audience. 3. The Trojans were supported by Zeus. 4. Greek was spoken by the ordinary people. 5. The themes of glory and honor have been explored by literary scholars. 6. The disagreement was caused by Agamemnon’s pride. 7. Death was preferred by the Argive troops to living in disgrace. 8. With the battle having been completed and the losing troops having been humiliated by the victors, the bodies of the fallen men were buried. 9. It is agreed upon by the gods that a proper burial is deserved by Hector. 10. Hephaestus is persuaded by Thetis to forge Achilles a new suit of armor, which is presented to him by her the following morning.
