Grammar Lesson Two

By LAWRENCE CHITERI
Published October 1, 2009

Many times we have written our sentences without considering the grammatical implications that come with them. In particular, we have always lost the ordering of our grammatical properties, which makes our writing nothing more than a “tick tak tok” guess work session.

In this discussion, let us look at the active and passive voice, and how afterwards, our writing may be enhanced. We will first and foremost distinguish between the terms-active, passive and voice-

The following sentence will come in handy in this venture:

The three word sentence should be and looks very simple; however, it is fully loaded in grammatical stylistics. It should go a long way to aid our understanding of good writing. First, the noun Peter is the Subject of the Verb-Loves (Remember that a noun is a word that names people, places and things-forget the old song that a noun is the name of…while Subject in grammar, refers to the person or thing, that does an action or put succinctly, is the doer of an action). Peter in the sentence above, is the object; which in grammar means-the person or thing that receives or suffers an action.

Having agreed on the terms accruing there from, let us analyst the sentence. Look at the form of the verb- in this case-Loves (Remember that a verb is a word that denotes action), and you will agree that by its nature, and form, indicated that Peter, the person denoted by the subject does an action. Which in effect means that the verb loves is in the active voice. Defined therefore, a verb is said to be in the Active Voice, when its form shows like in Loves, that Peter, the person denoted by the subject performs an action, or is the doer of an action.

Let us now look at sentence two;

We might be tempted to think that the sentence has merely been inverted (We will discuss Inversion next). Notice that in our first sentence, the noun Peter was the subject of the verb loves; yet Susan now purports to denote the subject. Therefore a look at the verb indicates a change from loves, to is loved. Automatically, the form of the verb is loved, tells us that Susan the person denoted by the subject has something done to her. She receives or suffers an action; which makes the verb is loved to be in the passive voice.

Defined therefore, a verb is said to in the passive voice, when its form shows like in sentence two that, the person or thing denoted by the subject has something done to it, receives an action or suffers an action.(the verb is inactive)

Notice also that in sentence one, we have the complete sentence structure of subject+ verb+ object; summarized as, the doer of an action (subject), the action itself (verb) and the receiver of the action (object).On the other hand we have a denoted subject-Susan and a verb-is loved yet no one receives the action, because the verb in the passive voice, does not take an object.

What then is voice in grammar? It is that form of the verb, which tells us whether the person denoted by the subject performs an action (is the doer of an action), or receives an action (suffers an action).

At this point in time we are certainly aware what it means to say active and passive voice, and can apply the same in our writing. Let us practice this and make our communication deliberate, and effective.

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