Question

What is the voice of the verb in the sentence, "In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue."?

Answer 1

This verb (and the whole sentence) is in Active Voice. See explanation.

Explanation:

In Active Voice sentence the subject is the doer of the action (the thing or person doing the action); here it is Columbus.

In the Passive Voice the subject is the thing upon which the action is done.

To see the difference let's compare two sentences:

John's parents built this house in 1960.

and

This house was built by John's parents in 1960

In the first sentence the subject is the person who actually did something: John's parents.

While in the second sentence the subject is a result of an action (the house). The doer is added here by an additional clause by John's parents