Active Voice

What Is Active Voice? (with Examples)

Active voice is a term that describes a verb when the subject does the action of the verb. Most verbs are in the active voice.

Look at this example of the active voice:

active voice example
In other words, a verb is said to be in the active voice when the subject performs the verb. When the opposite is true (i.e., the subject of the sentence is being acted upon by the verb), it is said to be in passive voice.

Look at this example of the passive voice:

passive voice example

Examples of Verbs in the Active Voice

If a verb is in the active voice, its subject performs the action of the verb.

Examples of active verbs (active verbs shaded): Here is another example: Another example: Sometimes, it's a little trickier to spot whether the subject carried out the action of the verb. Look at the two examples below. They tell similar stories, but the first one is an active sentence, and the second is a passive sentence. Now, look at this one: So, in the second example, the boy is not performing the action of the verb. Some unknown person is performing the action by seeing the boy trip. This is an example of the passive voice because the subject is not acting out the main verb.

More examples of active sentences:

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See Also

What are verbs? What is the subject of a sentence? What is the object of a sentence? What is passive voice? What is an active sentence? What is a passive sentence? What voice should I use?