Oh no! The passive voice…

The subject of a sentence featuring the passive voice denotes the recipient of an action; not the performer of an action like the active voice.

An example of the active voice is:

The police caught the thief
police=subject
caught=verb
thief=object

To turn that into the passive voice, the object (recipient of the action) becomes the subject.

eg. The thief was caught by the police

The passive voice is used to focus on the action (to catch) rather than on who performed the action (the police).

It would be possible to simply say; “The thief was caught” as it is unimportant, unknown or obvious who caught him.

The passive voice can be used in the present,past or future:

The thief is caught by the police
The thief was caught by the police
The thief will be caught by the police

Here’s a useful table with some more examples:

Tense		Subject	Verb	Object
Simple Present	Active:	Rita	writes	a letter.
Simple Present	Passive:	A letter	is written	by Rita.
Simple Past	Active:	Rita	wrote	a letter.
Simple Past	Passive:	A letter	was written	by Rita.
Present Perfect	Active:	Rita	has written	a letter.
Present Perfect	Passive:	A letter	has been written	by Rita.
Future I	Active:	Rita	will write	a letter.
Future I	Passive:	A letter	will be written	by Rita.

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