Voice of the verb

1. Voice of the Verb

2. “Voice ” is linked to the verb because it is considered one of the features that define it, together with “tense”, “person”, “aspect” or “ mood”.

3. KINDS OF VOICE

4. Active Voice It is the most common, unmarked voice. Active Voice Subject Verb Object > The choir sings love songs.

5. Passive Voice Passive verb phrases are less common and used for special discourse functions. Passive Voice Subject Verb Object > Love songs are sung by the choir.

6. Compare…

7. Normal Passives follow the three general steps to form passive sentences:

8. Object --- Passive Subject To transform an active sentence into a passive one, it is commonly believed that the main verb in active should be transitive, i.e., there should be a Direct Object in the sentence. However, the English language proves that a passive sentence can also be created from the Indirect Object in the active sentence. Therefore, this leads us to say that to form a passive sentence we need to have an Object in the active counterpart.

9. Verb --- Be + Participle ACTIVE teach / teaches Is teaching Taught Was teaching Have / has taught Had taught Will teach To teach PASSIVE Am/is/are taught Is being taught Was/were taught Was were being taught Have/has been taught Had been taught Will be taught To be taught

10. Subject --- Agent Complement When is the agent complement not necessary? when the active subject is an indefinite pronoun or a generic noun. (i.e., some-, any-, no-& “people”) This is called the impersonal passive.

11. PRACTICE EXERCISES

12. Construct active and passive sentences for the following:

13. Thank You!