how do you tell when to use passive or active voice?

Question

anonymous · Answer

Remember one thing.
In active voice, stress is always on the subject, whereas, in passive voice, stress is always on the object.

mani_jha · Answer

Right, Aadarsh. When you want to emphasize that the subject did the work, use the active voice. When you want to emphasize that work was done on the object, use the passive voice.
Suppose, you have made a new machine. If people asked you who made it, you will proudly say " I made it". You want to stress the fact that it is you who made it. This is the active voice(The subject is "active")
Now suppose, you accidentally break the window. You are scared but go to your mum and tell her , " The window got broken". Here, you dont want to stress the fact that you broke the window, so probably you wont say " I broke the window ". This is the passive voice(" passive" means that work is done on the subject)