Active and Passive Voice Activities - Snips and Snails Teaching - Free Printable

Let’s go through each sentence one by one and decide if it’s active or passive voice.

Remember:
- In active voice, the subject does the action. (Example: “The dog chased the cat.”)
- In passive voice, the subject receives the action, often with “was,” “were,” “is,” “are,” etc., and sometimes includes “by...” (Example: “The cat was chased by the dog.”)

Now let’s look at each sentence:

1. My grandmother baked the cake.
→ Who did the baking? My grandmother → She did the action → Active

2. Someone stole the car from the parking lot.
→ Who stole? Someone → They did the action → Active

3. The lesson was learned by the student.
→ The lesson didn’t learn itself — it was learned *by* someone → “was learned” = passive structure → Passive

4. My favorite movie played on Netflix.
→ The movie didn’t do anything — but here, “played” is used intransitively (no object), and there’s no “was played” → This is actually active! Movies can “play” as a verb meaning “to be shown.” So: Active

5. An empty cup was thrown from the car.
→ Cup didn’t throw itself — “was thrown” = passive → Passive

6. Our teacher graded the tests.
→ Teacher did the grading → Active

7. The gardener watered the flowers.
→ Gardener did the watering → Active

8. The trophy was placed on the shelf.
→ Trophy didn’t place itself — “was placed” = passive → Passive

✔ Let’s double-check tricky ones:
- Sentence 4: “My favorite movie played on Netflix.” — Yes, this is active because “played” is the main verb and the movie is the subject doing the playing (in the sense of being shown). No “was” or “by” → Active.
- Sentence 3, 5, 8 all have “was + past participle” → Passive.

Final Answer:
1. active
2. active
3. passive
4. active
5. passive
6. active
7. active
8. passive