Active voice

This article is about a grammatical voice. For the Seattle skyscraper, see Active Voice Building. For active and passive in English, see English passive voice.

Active voice is a grammatical voice common in many of the world's languages. It is the unmarked voice for clauses featuring a transitive verb in nominative–accusative languages, including English and most other Indo-European languages. A verb in such languages is usually in the active voice when the subject of the verb performs the action named.

Active voice is used in a clause whose subject expresses the main verb's agent. That is, the subject does the verb's designated action.^[1] A clause whose agent is marked as grammatical subject is called an active clause. In contrast, a clause in which the subject has the role of patient or theme is named a passive clause, and its verb is expressed in passive voice. Many languages have both an active and a passive voice and this allows for greater flexibility in sentence construction, as either the semantic agent or patient may take the subject syntactic role.^[2]

In a clause including an impersonal verb, the verb is active in form, but no agent is specified.

Examples

In the following examples, the active and passive voice are illustrated with pairs of sentences using the same transitive verb.

Language	Active voice	Passive voice
Afrikaans	Die hond het die posbode gebyt Die hond het die posbode gebyt The dog bit the postal carrier.	Die posbode is deur die hond gebyt Die posbode is deur die hond gebyt The postal carrier was bitten by the dog.
English	The dog bit the postal carrier.	The postal carrier was bitten by the dog.
Dutch	De hond beet de postbezorger De hond beet de postbezorger The dog bit the postal carrier.	De postbezorger werd gebeten door de hond De postbezorger werd gebeten door de hond The postal carrier was bitten by the dog.
Arabic	عَضّ 'ad الكلبُ alkalbu ساعي sa'eya البريد albareed عَضّ الكلبُ ساعي البريد 'ad alkalbu sa'eya albareed The dog bit the postal carrier.	عُضّ 'oud ساعي sa'eya البريد albareed بواسطة biwasitat الكلب alkalb عُضّ ساعي البريد بواسطة الكلب 'oud sa'eya albareed biwasitat alkalb The postal carrier was bitten by the dog.
Finnish	Koira puri postimiestä Koira puri postimiestä The dog bit the postal carrier.	Postimiestä puri koira Postimiestä puri koira The postal carrier was bitten by the dog.
French	Le chien a mordu le facteur Le chien a mordu le facteur The dog bit the postal carrier.	Le facteur a été mordu par le chien Le facteur a été mordu par le chien The postal carrier was bitten by the dog.
German	Der Hund biss den Postboten Der Hund biss den Postboten The dog bit the postal carrier.	Der Postbote wurde vom Hund gebissen Der Postbote wurde vom Hund gebissen The postal carrier was bitten by the dog.
Italian	Il cane ha morso il postino Il cane ha morso il postino The dog bit the postal carrier.	Il postino è stato morso dal cane Il postino è stato morso dal cane The postal carrier was bitten by the dog.
Latin	Canis epistulārium momordit Canis epistulārium momordit The dog bit the postman.	Epistulārius a cane morsum erat Epistulārius a cane morsum erat The postman was bitten by the dog.
Korean	개가 gaega 우편집배원을 upyeonjibbaewon-eul 물었다 mul-eossda 개가 우편집배원을 물었다 gaega upyeonjibbaewon-eul mul-eossda A dog bit the postal carrier.	우편집배원은 upyeonjibbaewon-eun 개에게 gaeege 물렸다 mullyeossda 우편집배원은 개에게 물렸다 upyeonjibbaewon-eun gaeege mullyeossda The postal carrier was bitten by a dog.
Japanese	犬が Inu-ga かんだ。 kanda 犬が かんだ。 Inu-ga kanda A dog bit [someone].	犬に Inu-ni かまれた。 kamareta 犬に かまれた。 Inu-ni kamareta By a dog [someone] was bitten.
Chinese	狗 Gǒu 咬了 yǎole 邮递员。 yóudìyuán 狗 咬了 邮递员。 Gǒu yǎole yóudìyuán The dog bit the postal carrier.	邮递员 Yóudìyuán 被 bèi 狗 gǒu 咬了。 yǎole 邮递员 被 狗 咬了。 Yóudìyuán bèi gǒu yǎole The postal carrier was bitten by the dog.
Slovak	Pes uhryzol poštara. Pes uhryzol poštara. The dog bit the postal carrier.	Poštár bol uhryznutý psom. Poštár bol uhryznutý psom. The postal carrier was bitten by the dog.
Polish	Pies ugryzł listonosza Pies ugryzł listonosza The dog bit the postal carrier.	Listonosz został ugryziony przez psa Listonosz został ugryziony przez psa The postal carrier was bitten by the dog.
Spanish	El perro mordió al cartero El perro mordió al cartero The dog bit the postal carrier.	El cartero fue mordido por el perro El cartero fue mordido por el perro The postal carrier was bitten by the dog.
Swahili	Mbwa aliuma tarishi Mbwa aliuma tarishi The dog bit the postal carrier.	Tarishi aliumwa na mbwa Tarishi aliumwa na mbwa The postal carrier was bitten by the dog.
Swedish	Hunden bet brevbäraren Hunden bet brevbäraren The dog bit the postal carrier.	Brevbäraren blev biten av hunden Brevbäraren blev biten av hunden The postal carrier was bitten by the dog.
Telugu	కుక్క 'kukka పోస్టల్ postal క్యారియర్ని carrierni కరిచింది karichindi కుక్క పోస్టల్ క్యారియర్ని కరిచింది 'kukka postal carrierni karichindi The dog bit the postal carrier.	పోస్టల్ postal క్యారియర్ carrier కుక్క kukka చేత cheta కరవబడింది karavabadindi పోస్టల్ క్యారియర్ కుక్క చేత కరవబడింది postal carrier kukka cheta karavabadindi The postal carrier was bitten by the dog.
Thai	หมา H̄mā กัด kạd บุรุษ burus̄ʹ ไปรษณีย์ pịrs̄ʹṇīy̒ หมา กัด บุรุษ ไปรษณีย์ H̄mā kạd burus̄ʹ pịrs̄ʹṇīy̒ The dog bit the postal carrier.	บุรุษ Burus̄ʹ ไปรษณีย์ pịrs̄ʹṇīy̒ ถูก t̄hūk หมา h̄mā กัด kạd บุรุษ ไปรษณีย์ ถูก หมา กัด Burus̄ʹ pịrs̄ʹṇīy̒ t̄hūk h̄mā kạd The postal carrier was bitten by the dog.

See also

•  Language portal

• Antipassive voice
• Mediopassive voice
• E-Prime, a version of the English language that excludes forms of the verb to be

References

1. O'Grady, William, John Archibald, Mark Aronoff, and Janie Rees-Miller (eds.) (2001). Contemporary Linguistics: An Introduction Fourth edition. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's. ISBN 0-312-24738-9
2. Saeed, John (1997). Semantics. Oxford: Blackwell. ISBN 0-631-20035-5