What is a passive sentence examples
Matthew Martinez
Updated on April 21, 2026
In a passive sentence, the person or thing doing the action (the agent) is usually preceded by the word “by.” For example: Anita was driven to the theatre by Carla. Nowadays, black kites are protected by law. The olives are stoned and crushed in this room by my son.
How do you identify a passive sentence?
A passive sentence is almost the reverse of an active sentence because the object of the verb (the receiver of the action) moves to the front position, and the subject (the doer of the action) moves to the end (usually as a “by phrase”). Below is the pattern: Object + “be” + Verb + (optional “by” phrase).
What are some passive words?
There are a few indicators of passive voice that you can look for in your writing: Any form of the word “to be.” The words “am,” “is,” “are,” “was,” “were,” “be,” “being,” and “been” come before the verb in passive voice form. The “-en” form of the verb. An “-en” verb form is an indication of passive construction.
What is the example of active and passive sentence?
For example: Active voice: The cat was chasing the mouse. In this sentence, ‘the cat’ is the subject, ‘was chasing’ is the verb and ‘the mouse’ is the object. Passive voice: The mouse was being chased by the cat.Which sentences are in passive voice?
In a sentence using passive voice, the subject is acted upon; he or she receives the action expressed by the verb. The agent performing the action may appear in a “by the…” phrase or may be omitted. The dog is acting upon the sentence subject (the boy), meaning it uses the passive voice.
How do you not write passive sentences?
To avoid using the passive voice, make sure the subject of your sentence is doing the action. For example, “The tail was wagged by the dog” is passive, but “The dog wagged its tail” isn’t because the subject of the sentence, the dog, is doing the action.
What is passive voice misuse example?
Passive voice misuse occurs when a writer simply tells a story, as in the example we just used: Peter was going to the store. The afternoon sun was hot. His mother had told him to buy eggs.
How do you write in passive form?
- Firstly, you need to make the object (from the active sentence) into the new subject. For example, in “John helped me”, “me” is the object. …
- Then you make the verb passive. …
- Then add the past participle of the verb. …
- If necessary, you can say who did the action.
How do you write passive?
In a passive sentence, the person or thing acted on comes first, and the actor is added at the end, introduced with the preposition “by.” The passive form of the verb is signaled by a form of “to be”: in the sentence above, “was formulated” is in passive voice while “formulated” is in active.
How do you write a passive voice paragraph?In the simplest terms, an active voice sentence is written in the form of “A does B.” (For example, “Carmen sings the song.”) A passive voice sentence is written in the form of “B is done by A.” (For example, “The song is sung by Carmen.”) Both constructions are grammatically sound and correct.
Article first time published onWhat are passive statements?
A passive sentence is a sentence where the subject does not perform the action of the verb. In fact, in a passive sentence, the action of the verb is done to the subject.
What is an example of an active sentence?
Easy Examples of Active Sentences The dog ate the biscuits. (Here, “the dog” is the subject of the sentence. “The dog” is the subject of the verb “ate.” “The dog” is performing the action of the verb.) Curiosity killed the cat.
How do you identify passive voice in a paragraph?
To identify passive voice, look at what happened and look at who was responsible for doing it. If the person or thing responsible for doing the actions is either omitted or occurs in the sentence AFTER the thing that happened, AND if you see a past participle straight after the form of “to be,” it’s passive voice.
Is passive sentence bad?
The passive voice is often maligned by teachers and professors as a bad writing habit. Or, to put it in the active voice, teachers and professors across the English-speaking world malign the passive voice as a bad writing habit.