By : Musaadah
A final way to categorize verbs is as active voice or passive voice, based on s sentence structure and meaning.
Verbs when used in the active voice look like this in a sentence.
The bus hit the truck at 8:40 P.M. on a stormy night.
In sentences using active voice, the person or thing that did the action is usually mentioned first and the thing that received the action is mentioned last. When you hear or read a sentence, you naturally place the most importance on the thing you hear first, so in this example, the bus has the strongest focus.
On the other hand, sentences that use verbs in the passive voice look like this.
The car was hit by the bus on a stormy night.
The car was hit on a stormy night.
In this case, the focus is now centred on the car because it is mentioned first. The effect of using a passive voice is to “downplay” the “doer” of the action. Many beginning writers use a lot of passive voice verbs in their writing. “Good writing” generally avoids the passive voice because it takes away from and weakens the message.
When the passive voice is useful, there are only a few occasions. One of them is to reduce someone’s or something’s responsibility for an action. For example, if you worked for the bus and were afraid that the company might be sued for negligence, which of the three sentences above would you write? The one which “downplays” the railway’s responsibility is:
The car was hit on a stormy night.
Think about how you report bad news. Often it is phrased in the passive. Kids are really good at using the passive to avoid responsibility.
I had an accident and the fender was crumpled. (by me).
My report card got lost....(by me).
Related Topics:
Kinds of Verbs (Part 1)
Kinds of Verbs (Part 2)
A final way to categorize verbs is as active voice or passive voice, based on s sentence structure and meaning.
Verbs when used in the active voice look like this in a sentence.
The bus hit the truck at 8:40 P.M. on a stormy night.
In sentences using active voice, the person or thing that did the action is usually mentioned first and the thing that received the action is mentioned last. When you hear or read a sentence, you naturally place the most importance on the thing you hear first, so in this example, the bus has the strongest focus.
On the other hand, sentences that use verbs in the passive voice look like this.
The car was hit by the bus on a stormy night.
The car was hit on a stormy night.
In this case, the focus is now centred on the car because it is mentioned first. The effect of using a passive voice is to “downplay” the “doer” of the action. Many beginning writers use a lot of passive voice verbs in their writing. “Good writing” generally avoids the passive voice because it takes away from and weakens the message.
When the passive voice is useful, there are only a few occasions. One of them is to reduce someone’s or something’s responsibility for an action. For example, if you worked for the bus and were afraid that the company might be sued for negligence, which of the three sentences above would you write? The one which “downplays” the railway’s responsibility is:
The car was hit on a stormy night.
Think about how you report bad news. Often it is phrased in the passive. Kids are really good at using the passive to avoid responsibility.
I had an accident and the fender was crumpled. (by me).
My report card got lost....(by me).
Related Topics:
Kinds of Verbs (Part 1)
Kinds of Verbs (Part 2)
