文档介绍：Passive voice
Voice
Classification
Definition
Usages of passive voice
The rules of change active voice into the passive voice
Voice constraints
Voice
Voice is a grammatical category. It is a form of the verb which shows whether the subject of a sentence acts or is acted on English verbs have two voices.
When the subject is the agent or doer of an action, the verb takes the form of active voices; if the subject is the recipient of the action, the verb takes the form of passive voice.
A sentence/clause whose predictor (predicate verb) is passive is called a passive sentence/clause.
Voice
Classification
1) active voice
2) passive voice
Definitions of passive voice and active voice
Usages of passive voice
The use of the passive is determined by many factors.
The following may be served as a general guide.
The passive is used when we are more interested in the event itself than in the agent.
B. The passive is used when the agent is unknown or when we wish to make a statement sound impersonal perhaps out of modesty or tactfulness.
. This book was published in the 16th century.
C. The passive is used and the agent with “by” is expressed when we wish to stress the doer of the action.
Usages of passive voice
D. The use of the passive is usually dictated by the context. Sometimes the passive form is used to avoid changing the subject in the middle of a
sentence and at other times, to achieve a better connection with the preceding or following sentences.
. Jack fought Tom in men’s singles and was beaten.
In many cases, the choice between the active and passive depends on the semantic intention implied by the context.
. It rained heavily last night. The rain destroyed the flowers.
The rules
Most of the SVO/ SVoO/ SVOC patterns can be made passive. Rules of transformation are as follows:
1) In the pattern SVO, the active object es the passive subject, the active verb phrase es the passive verb phrase, the active subject es the passive agent, and a