DLR Notes- Active and Passive Voice- Monday, January 12, 2015 What Is Active Voice? In an active sentence, the subject is doing the action. A straightforward example is the sentence "Steve loves Amy." Steve is the subject, and he is doing the action: he loves Amy, the object of the sentence. What Is Passive Voice? In passive voice, the target of the action gets promoted to the subject position. Instead of saying, "Steve loves Amy," I would say, "Amy is loved by Steve." The subject of the sentence becomes Amy, but she isn't doing anything. Rather, she is just the recipient of Steve's love. The focus of the sentence has changed from Steve to Amy.

Tuesday, January 13, Notes Continued Using “by zombies” to help identify passive voice Usually (but not always), passive voice can include the actor, usually following the verb. Basically, if you can add “by zombies” after the verb and it makes sense, you probably have passive voice. “The town was attacked (by zombies).” To make this sentence active, you will need to put the noun doing the action in the subject location of the sentence. That is: “Zombies attacked the town.” Now we can check for passive voice: “Zombies attacked the town (by zombies).” No, this doesn’t make sense; therefore it is active voice. Example: The house was haunted (by zombies). - Passive voice Zombies haunted the house. – Active voice

Wednesday, January 14, Practice Sentences Copy down the following sentences and label them as either active or passive. 1. The dishes were washed by Jane. 2. Eleanor loves the Rolling Stones. 3. The money was found under the floor. 4. My books were returned before class. 5. Jean broke her arm during a volleyball game.

Wednesday, January 14, Answers 1. The dishes were washed by Jane. - Passive (The dishes are the subject but not doing the action.) 2. Eleanor loves the Rolling Stones. – Active (Eleanor is the subject and is doing the action of loving.) 3. The money was found under the floor. – Passive (The money is the subject but not doing the action.) 4. My books were returned before class. – Passive (The books are the subject but not doing the action.) 5. Jean broke her arm during a volleyball game. – Active (Jean is the subject and is doing the action of breaking.)

Thursday, January 15, Practice Sentences Copy down the following sentences and label them as either active or passive. 1. Nothing was accomplished by crying. 2. Nancy baked and frosted the cake. 3. The computers were shipped early in September. 4. All the students passed the algebra test. 5. My father took pictures at the picnic.