Active and Passive Voice
16 9月 2014, Posted by in 英会話
THE VOICE SYSTEM
There are two voices in English: the active voice and the passive voice.
When talking about voices, we are mainly considering one part of a sentence, the subject.
Active Voice
The active voice is more common in English. The grammatical structure places the
subject in the subject slot. The subject of the sentence is (1) acting or causing
something to happen or (2) being acted upon or bearing the result of something that happened.
|
Subject |
Verb |
Object |
Adverbial |
|
Lionesses |
defend |
their cubs |
from predators. |
|
His grandmother |
collected |
the harvest |
by herself in the old days. |
Passive Voice
There are times when the noun phrase that occupies the subject slot in an active
sentence is redundant.
|
Subject |
Verb |
Object |
Adverbial |
|
People |
speak |
English |
in London |
In the example above, the subject PEOPLE is redundant because it is already understood
that only people can speak. This is when we use the passive voice.
|
Voice |
Subject |
Verb |
Object |
Adverbial |
|
Active |
People |
speak |
English |
in London. |
|
Passive |
English |
is spoken |
|
in London. |