What is active and passive voice and examples?

A verb is in the passive voice when the subject of the sentence is acted on by the verb. For example, in “The ball was thrown by the pitcher,” the ball (the subject) receives the action of the verb, and was thrown is in the passive voice.

A verb is said to be in the active voice when the subject of a sentence or clause is the one performing the action described by the verb. For example, the sentence Rose hugged her sister uses a verb in the active voice because the subject Rose is the one that performed the action described by the verb hugged.

Active voice In most English sentences with an action verb, the subject performs the action denoted by the verb. These examples show that the subject is doing the verb's action. Because the subject does or "acts upon" the verb in such sentences, the sentences are said to be in the active voice.

An active sentence is a sentence where the subject performs the action of the verb. For example: John kicked the ball.