Verb Voices
Verbs have a property known as voice which allows you to show the relationship between the verb and the subject.
Active and Passive
If a verb is in the Active Voice they perform an action on a subject:
If, however, a verb is in the Passive Voice then the action is reversed.
| active | passive |
| I broke the window. | The window was broken by me. |
| Jules ate a banana. | The banana was eaten by Jules. |
Use
Generally you should try to use active tenses over passive tenses. This is because active tenses are simpler to understand. Passive sentences are used more, for example, in scientific journals and in situations where you do not want the subject to be obviously known.
For example, using the passive we can say:
By doing this we don't know who killed the man. Perhaps it was a terrorist or perhaps it was a policeman. Depending on your point of view, you may or may not want to advertise who killed the civilian.
On the other hand, using the active voice leaves us in no doubt:
