- Active Voice: The subject carries out the action. It’s clear and puts the focus on the person or thing doing the action.
- Passive Voice: The subject receives the action. It focuses on what happened, not who did it.
Imagine a hacker attacking a website:
- Active: The hacker is the star, attacking the site.
- Passive: The website takes center stage, getting attacked.
Now, let’s explore past simple (one past event) and past perfect (before another past event) with examples from the DDoS attack.
Active voice:
- Structure: Subject + past tense verb + (object).
- Example: “The hacker attacked abc.domain.hk last weekend.”
- Why Use?: Clear and direct, great for technical reports, e.g., “The botnet sent 8 million requests.”
Passive voice: (Past Simple)
- Structure: Subject + was/were + past participle + (optional “by” + doer).
- Example: “abc.domain.hk was attacked by the hacker last weekend.”
- Why Use?: Focuses on the victim, perfect for formal reports or unknown doers, e.g., “The server was flooded by 5,000 IPs.”
Passive Voice: (Past Perfect)
- Structure: Subject + had been + past participle + (optional “by” + doer).
- Example: “abc.domain.hk had been attacked by the hacker before AWS WAF was enabled.”
- Why Use?: Shows a prior past action, useful for timelines, e.g., “The server had been flooded before mitigation began.”
| Voice & Tense | Structure | Example | When to Use |
|---|---|---|---|
| Active Voice, Past Simple | Subject + past tense verb + (object) | The botnet sent 8 million requests to abc.domain.hk last weekend. | Clear technical explanations, e.g., telling your team who attacked the server. |
| Passive Voice, Past Simple | Subject + was/were + past participle + (by + doer) | abc.domain.hk was sent 8 million requests by the botnet last weekend. | Formal reports or unknown doers, e.g., focusing on the website’s impact. |
| Passive Voice, Past Perfect | Subject + had been + past participle + (by + doer) | abc.domain.hk had been sent 8 million requests before AWS WAF was enabled. | Timelines, e.g., showing the attack happened before another past event (mitigation). |
Key Notes:
- Past Simple: One past event (e.g., “was sent” or “sent” last weekend).
- Past Perfect: Before another past event (e.g., “had been sent” before WAF activation).
- Active vs. Passive: Active = doer acts; Passive = subject receives action.
- Why “had been”?: Only past perfect passive needs “had been” because passive voice uses “to be” (here, “been” for past perfect). Active past perfect uses “had” + past participle (e.g., “had sent”).
- Clarity: Active past simple (e.g., “The attacker targeted the server”) is direct for tech talks.
- Focus: Passive past simple (e.g., “The server was targeted”) highlights impact in reports.
- Timeline: Passive past perfect (e.g., “The server had been targeted before defenses kicked in”) clarifies what came first.
In the DDoS attack:
- Active Past Simple: “The botnet flooded the website with 5,000 IPs.”
- Passive Past Simple: “The website was flooded by 5,000 IPs.”
- Passive Past Perfect: “The website had been flooded before we strengthened AWS WAF.”
- Spot the Auxiliary:
- Was/were + past participle = Past simple passive (e.g., “was attacked”).
- Had been + past participle = Past perfect passive (e.g., “had been attacked”).
- Check the Timeline:
- Past simple = One event (e.g., “The server was overwhelmed last weekend”).
- Past perfect = Before another event (e.g., “The server had been overwhelmed before mitigation”).
- Active or Passive?:
- Does the subject act (active, e.g., “The hacker attacked”) or get acted on (passive, e.g., “The website was attacked”)?