Studying Grammar Like Crazy!

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Part of speech
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Word, term
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Level of difficulty
1 elementary
5 intermediate
9 advanced

Verbs

Voice, Part 1

7 - 8

Explanation and discussion:

In Standard English, most sentences are written in the active voice. Indeed, many grammar checkers will kick out sentences in the passive voice. However, there are times and places for the use of this structure.

Basically, voice is a verb form which indicates if the subject of the sentence is the doer of a given action or the recipient of that action.

A verb is said to be in active voice if its subject performs the action in the verb.
Likewise, it is said to be in the passive voice if the subject is what is acted upon.

Note that the subject may be unstated, as in the passive voice sentence, "Made in Japan".

But, be careful, not all verbs are active or passive. Sentence with a copulative verb (be, am, is, are, etc.) are neither!

Example(s):

Examples of active and passive voice:

active voice	passive voice
I wrote this lesson.	This lesson *was written by* me.
The earthquake caused much damage.	Much damage *was caused by* the earthquake.
The doctor saw Michael after he was better.	Michael *was seen by* the doctor after he was better.
His opponents vilified^* Bill Clinton for his behavior. -or- For his behavior, his opponents vilified^* Bill Clinton.	Bill Clinton was vilified^* by his opponents for his behavior. -or- For his behavior, Bill Clinton was vilified^* by his opponents.

^{*Note: vilified means criticized, attacked or put down.} Examples of copulative verbs:

copulative (neuter) sentences

The sky is blue.

I am hungry.

Note(s):

Exercise(s):

Note: Due to a bug in Microsoft Internet Explorer, you must click next question for the first question. This does not happen in Netscape. In any browser, click on the [a], [b] or [c] for the answer and the next question button to see the next question.

For this exercise, consider 7 or better "Great", 5 or better "Very Good", 3 or better "Good" and 2 or better "OK". Remember the score is RIGHT minus WRONG. Zero or less, please study some more.

Studying Grammar Like Crazy!

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