In active voice the main subject of the sentence actively performs the verb; hence existence of a subject is mandatory for an active voice. For example, "Indian women have worn saris", has Indian women as active subject who perform a verb (wear/worn).

In passive voice the stress is on action and not on subject. The subject does not perform an action/verb. For example in "Saris have been worn by Indian women" the subject saris are not performing the action/verb.

The easiest to locate sign of passive voice verb is use of any form of helping verb "be" i.e. is/are/am/was/were/be/been before the third form of principal/main verb. So whenever we find third form of main verb after any form of "be", we can safely identify it as a passive voice.

For example:

Solar eclipse is observed, Snake was killed, Ceremony will be held, Exams have been conducted.

In active voice, if any form of "be" (is/are/was/were/be/been) is used before main verb, it (main verb) will have "-ing" form.

For example:

Monkeys are eating bananas, They will be playing cricket, I was reading a novel.

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3 years ago