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There are two types of ‘voice’ in English. ‘The Active Voice’ or ‘The Passive Voice’.
The most common type of voice is the active voice. When we use ‘The Active Voice’, the subject does the action.
John broke my computer.
John is the subject. He does the action: breaking. The subject of the sentence is important.
Compare the first example with the example below.
My computer was broken.
In this example, the action is the focus of the sentence. We don’t know or it is not important who broke the computer. In this case, we usually use ‘The Passive Voice’.
Structure
When we use ‘The Passive Voice’, we change the structure of the sentence. Compare:
The Active Structure
| Subject | Action | Object |
| Someone | Broke | My computer |
The Passive Structure
| Subject | Verb to be | Past Participle | (Object) |
| My computer | was | broken | (by someone) |
In the passive structure:
The object of the Active Structure becomes the subject of the Passive Structure. (The computer).
The verb is changed to: be + the past participle.The subject of the Active Structure becomes the object of the Passive Structure or is not mentioned because it is not important.
Click on the following links to learn more about the Passive