active voice

/ˌæktɪv vɔɪs/

Other forms: active voices

In grammar, you use the active voice when the subject performs an action directly, as in the sentence "My brother ate five hamburgers."

The active voice is the most common way to construct a sentence; it results in the clearest kind of writing. You're more likely to say, "The dog caught the Frisbee" than to use the passive voice and say, "The Frisbee was caught by the dog." The downside of the active voice is that it can force you to take responsibility for your actions, like when you say, "I ate your brownies" instead of "Your brownies were eaten by somebody."

Definitions of active voice

1. noun

   the voice used to indicate that the grammatical subject of the verb is performing the action or causing the happening denoted by the verb
   synonyms: active

   antonyms:

   passive voice

   the voice used to indicate that the grammatical subject of the verb is the recipient (not the source) of the action denoted by the verb

   type of:

   voice

   (linguistics) the grammatical relation (active or passive) of the grammatical subject of a verb to the action that the verb denotes