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I am so confused about how to change passive to active. How do I say:

I was inducted into the National Honor Society

in active voice?

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  • The active voice sentence needs a subject. Here whoever did the induction. So something like The National Honor Society inducted me as suggested by Jasper (+1) or The selection committee inducted me into the National Honor Society.
    – Jyrki Lahtonen
    Aug 3, 2019 at 9:40
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    In this case a passive voice feels often natural, as adding a subject draws attention to it, and avoiding that may be the goal. As in a press announcement The star player X was inducted to the Hockey Hall of Fame, when the newsworthy thing is that X was honored in this way. Whoever made the decision is of marginal interest only.
    – Jyrki Lahtonen
    Aug 3, 2019 at 9:45
  • @JyrkiLahtonen -- Your comments would make a good answer.
    – Jasper
    Aug 3, 2019 at 17:29

2 Answers 2

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Promoting my comments to an answer.

A sentence in active voice needs a subject. Here whoever did the inducting. In addition to Jasper's suggestion another possibility might be

The selection committee inducted me into the National Honor Society.

The uncertainty here is that I invented that subject :-). This reflects the fact that in a sentence like this the subject is often of marginal interest only, and the use of passive voice is thus indicated. Mentioning a subject automatically draws some attention to it, and avoiding that may be the goal. Compare with a press release like

Today the star player X was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame.

The fans are only interested in the fact that their hero was honored in this way. They couldn't care less about who made the decision.

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  • “The National Honor society inducted me.” Is the simple and straightforward active voice version.
    – jwpfox
    Nov 28, 2020 at 12:19
  • @jwpfox That is what Jasper suggested. May be you should upvote that! I suggested alternatives, and was prompted to post the comment as an answer instead :-)
    – Jyrki Lahtonen
    Nov 28, 2020 at 12:21
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Passive voice has a form like:

<Event> happened to <patient>.
<Patient> was <verb>ed by <actor>.

The original post's example is:

I was inducted into the National Honor Society.

Active voice has a form like:

<Actor> <verb>ed <patient>.

Here are two active versions of the original post's example:

The National Honor Society inducted me.
I joined the National Honor Society.

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