Passive Voice Examples

There are two ways in which we say things we want to convey:

1. Active Voice
2. Passive Voice

Active voice is considered to be the normal or usual voice of the speaker. We all are familiar with the active voice. In this case, the subject performs the action and the object receives the action of the verb. Look at the following examples: 

• Lion killed the deer.
• Cows eat grass.
• She has cleaned the house.

You notice that most of the time we use this voice. 

Passive voice is not the usual way of speaking. In the passive voice, the subject receives the action of the verb. Look at the following examples:

• The deer was killed by the lion.
• Grass is eaten by the cows.
• The house has been cleaned by her.

Here, we will look at the passive voice in detail and learn how the passive sentences are formed. First we look at the structure of the passive sentence:

Subject	Be Verb	Main Verb (Past Participle Form)	Used
French	is	spoken	in many countries.
Dinner	was being	served	to the guests.
The Car	is	washed	everyday.
Juice	is	drunk	by everyone.
Are	you	paid	monthly?

You will probably question as to why we use passive voice. What is the use of the passive voice and when do we use it?

Passive voice is used: 

1. When we want to lay more importance to the object in the active voice
2. When the subject in the active voice is not known 

For example:

Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated by Nathuram Godse.

Here, the importance is given to Mahatma Gandhi (object in the active voice)

My phone was stolen.

Here, we don’t know the subject (who stole the phone).