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1. The category of Voice: its definition. The Active and the Passive voice.
Passive voice is a grammatical voice common in many of the world's languages. In a clause with passive voice, the grammatical subject expresses the theme or patient of the main verb – that is, the person or thing that undergoes the action or has its state changed.[1] This contrasts with active voice, in which the subject has the agent role. For example, in the passive sentence "The tree was pulled down", the subject (the tree) denotes the patient rather than the agent of the action. In contrast, the sentences "Someone pulled down the tree" and "The tree is down" are active sentences.
Typically, in passive clauses, what would otherwise be expressed by the object (or sometimes another argument) of the verb comes to be expressed by the subject, while what would otherwise be expressed by the subject is either not expressed at all, or is indicated by some adjunct of the clause. Thus transforming an active verb into a passive verb is a valence-decreasing process ("detransitivizing process"), because it transforms transitive verbs into intransitive verbs.[2]
Many languages have both an active and a passive voice; this allows for greater flexibility in sentence construction, as either the semantic agent or patient may take the syntactic role of subject.[3] The use of passive voice allows speakers to organize stretches of discourse by placing figures other than the agent in subject position. This may be done to foreground the patient, recipient, or other thematic role;[3] it may also be useful when the semantic patient is the topic of on-going discussion.[4] The passive voice may also be used to avoid specifying the agent of an action.
The difference between Active and Passive Voice is as the terms are defined.
For example, in Active Voice the subject is performing or doing an action, thus the term doer. In Active Voice the subject is actively involved in the action.
On the other hand, in Passive Voice the doer is no longer the subject, and the subject is no longer participating in any action, but rather, the action is being done to the subject; thus, the subject is now the receiver. In this voice, the sentence wants to emphasize the action and NOT who is doing the action.
If you consider all of the skills involved in learning a language: listening, speaking, reading, and writing, two are active and two are passive. Speaking and writing are skills that require action while listening and reading require little or no action, thus passive skills.
For example: The man is reading the newspaper. (Active Voice – The subject or the doer is reading.)
The newspaper is being read by the man. (Passive Voice – The subject in this sentence is not doing anything, but it is receiver of the action).
Can all sentences be written both in Active or Passive Voice?
The answer is No. Only those sentences that have a subject, a verb, and an OBJECT can be converted into Passive Voice.
There are many verbs that have no object. Some examples:
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