Do you know what active voice is? This article will provide you with all of the information you need on active voice, including its definition, usage, example sentences, and more!
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Kevin
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November 9, 2021
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Common Questions
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What is active voice?
According to Towson, active voice verbs, also known as active sentences, are verbs that are performed by a subject. The subject is the doer of the action, so they are said to be in the active voice. Passive voice, or a passive sentence, on the other hand, is a sentence in which the subject of the sentence is acted upon by the verb. Passive voice sentences and passive voice examples can be difficult to read when it comes to grammatical voices. Passive forms make for wordy sentences. Active sentences, on the other hand, should be the default when it comes to academic writing, an essay, technical writing, scientific writing, and other forms of sentence construction. These sentences use fewer words and grammar checkers flag these as good sentences. The syntax of active voice construction versus passive constructions or passive voice constructions provides more clarity than passive forms. The majority of your sentences should feature the action of the sentence and be an active voice sentence, avoiding passive verbs.
What are examples of active voice?
Active voice can be used in many different contexts in the English language. Trying to use a word or grammatical technique in a sentence is one of the best ways to memorize what it is, but you can also try making flashcards or quizzes that test your knowledge. Try using this term of the day in a sentence today! Below are a couple of examples of active voices that can help get you started incorporating this tool into your everyday use. Take a look at these active voice examples from Your Dictionary and EF and see how many you can identify the active voice in!
- The science class viewed the comet.
- I will clean the house every Saturday.
- The crew paved the entire stretch of highway.
- Harry ate six shrimp at dinner.
- A forest fire destroyed the whole suburb.
- The actor pet the squirrel yesterday.
- I will sell all of my merchandise tomorrow.
- I must memorize the formula for the quiz.
- The two kings are signing the treaty.
- Thousands of tourists visit the Grand Canyon every year.
- Beautiful giraffes roam the savannah.
- Sue changed the flat tire.
- I am planting some cacti in my desert garden.
- The homeowners remodeled the house to help it sell.
- The company requires staff to watch a safety video every year.
- The Beatles wrote “A Hard Day’s Night”.
- We are remodeling our home.
- A few well-chosen words convey a great deal of meaning.
- A mass of gases wrap around our planet.
- The city disposes of waste materials in a variety of ways.
- Spielberg directed the movie ET.
- My father built this house.
- Tom painted the entire house.
- We are going to the amusement park for my birthday.
- Larry generously donated money to the homeless shelter.
- The cleaning crew vacuums and dusts the office every night.
- We are going to watch a movie tonight.
- The teacher always answers the students’ questions.
- I ran the obstacle course in record time.
- The saltwater corroded the metal beams.
- The wedding planner is making all the reservations.
- The director will give you instructions.
- The kangaroo carried her baby in her pouch.
- Mom read the novel in one day.
- Susan will bake two dozen cupcakes for the bake sale.
- The choir really enjoys that piece.
- I am going to the pet store to buy cat food.
- I am having lunch with a friend today.
What are other literary techniques and devices?
There are many different literary and grammatical techniques and devices that you might see when you are reading prose or poetry. It is important to recognize these terms because they are always used for some purpose. Knowing these devices can help readers understand the author’s deeper meaning and why they are using such a device. Take a look at the below list of grammatical devices from OED and see how many you know! Then try researching ones that are unfamiliar to you.Â
- intensifier
- Â subjective
- Â prepositional object
- Â common noun
- Â non-finite
- Â gender
- Â prefix
- Â similative
- Â comparative
- Â dative
- Â modify | modifier
- Â conditional
- Â adverb (adv.)
- Â gerund
- Â modal verb | modal auxiliary verb | modal auxiliary
- Â determiner
- Â present tense
- Â prepositional passive
- Â protasis
- Â collective noun
- Â relative
- Â element
- Â participial adjective
- Â part of speech
- Â base form
- Â quasi-
- Â compound | compounding
- Â proper noun | proper name
- Â subjunctive
- Â apposition
- Â head
- Â perfect
- Â indicative
- Â feminine
- Â attributive
- Â phrasal verb
- Â stem
- Â positive
- Â reflexive
- Â unmarked genitive
- Â verbal noun
- Â adjective
- Â combination
- Â first person
- Â intransitive
- Â morpheme
- Â direct object
- Â demonstrative
- Â zero
- Â premodify | premodifier
- Â indirect speech
- Â instrumental
- Â construction
- Â declarative
- Â complement
- Â pro-form
- Â anticipatory
- Â passive infinitive
- Â apodosis and protasis
- Â preposition (prep.)
- Â predicative
- Â anaphoric
- Â number
- Â accusative
- Â concrete
- Â active
- Â indefinite
- Â abstract
- Â conjunction (conj.)
- Â special use
- Â ellipsis | elliptical
- Â main verb
- Â pleonasm | pleonastic
- Â tense
- Â bare infinitive
- Â sentence adverb |sentence adverbial
- Â article
- Â case
- Â cataphoric
- Â subordinate clause
- Â causative
- Â indirect object
- Â masculine
- Â phrase (phr.)
- Â past tense
- Â direct speech
- Â superlative
- Â personal pronoun
- Â indirect passive
- Â mass noun
- Â interrogative
- Â possessive pronoun
- Â participle | past participle | present participle
- Â finite
- Â vocative
- Â progressive
- Â nominative
- Â nominal relative | nominal relative clause
- Â absolute (absol.)
- Â infinitive
- Â objective
- Â appositive
- Â present participle
- Â postmodify | postmodifier
- Â past participle
- Â verb (v.)
- Â periphrasis | periphrastic
- Â third-person
- Â copular verb | copula
- Â optative
- Â non-referential
- Â plural
- Â cognate object
- Â that-clause
- Â mood
- Â main clause
- Â object | direct object | indirect object
- Â Â antecedent
- Â interjection
- Â double object
- Â definite article
- Â clause
- Â impersonal (impers.)
- Â simple
- Â indirect question
- Â imperative (imper.)
- Â combining form (comb. form)
- Â noun phrase
- Â possessive adjective
- Â prepositional phrase
- Â locative
- Â exclamation mark
- Â agree | agreement
- Â inflection | inflected | inflectional
- Â person
- Â pronoun (pron.)
- Â direct question
- Â noun (n.)
- Â parenthetical | parenthetically
- Â dual
- Â genitive
- Â adverbial | adverbially
- Â second person
- Â transitive
- Â filler
- Â neuter
- Â singular
- Â auxiliary verb | auxiliary
- Â count noun
- Â collocation | collocate
- Â construed (const., constr.)
- Â parasynthetic
- Â passive
- Â subject
- Â complementary
- Â to-infinitive
- Â agent noun
- Â possessive
Overall, active voice is a verb form in which the subject performs the action of the verb.
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