Verb Tense vs. Voice

Sometimes writers get confused by the difference between tense and voice. Hopefully this simplistic description will help: Tense is about time (past, present, or future), while voice is about action (active or passive). Our readers need context in order to understand when something is happening and who is doing something or whom something is happening to.

Now to go past the simplistic. Within each verb tense there are four more aspects to look at.

	PAST	PRESENT	FUTURE
SIMPLE—action at a particular point of time or happens repeatedly	I wrote yesterday.	I write every other day.	I will write tomorrow.
CONTINUOUS—action takes place over a period of time	I was writing when my agent called.	I am writing now.	I will be writing tomorrow.
PERFECT—action has already occurred, or will occur before another action takes place	I had written two short stories.	I have written several short stories.	I will have written a novel by the end of the year.
PERFECT CONTINUOUS—action is present has been occurring over time	I had been writing for years before being published.	I have been writing for one hour straight.	I will have been writing all day.

 

Voice depends upon the subject of the sentence. If the subject is acting, then the verb is active. If the subject isn’t acting, the verb is passive. To find passive verbs, look for 1) the “to be” verbs and a past particle of another verb (a past participle verb ends in “d”, “ed”, “n”, “en”, or “t”), or 2) a combination of two verbs.

ACTIVE	John wrote
TO BE + PAST PARTICIPLE	The story is being written by John
TWO VERB COMBINATION	The writing was done by John

Tense and voice need to match up so our story makes sense to our audience. Thinking about when something occurred and what the subject had to do with it will make our story clear. After all, we don’t want to confuse our readers, otherwise we’ll lose them.