Active or Passive Verbs? pptx

Active or Passive Verbs?

According to The Grammar Bible, "The voice of a verb indicates the

strength of the subject in a sentence. It tells us whether that subject takes

action or receives action. There are two possible voices: active and passive.

In the active voice, the stronger form, the subject of the sentence takes the

action of the verb. Our army won the battle. The subject army is strong since

it takes action. This sentence uses the active voice. In the passive voice, the

weaker form, the subject is acted upon. The battle was won by our army. In

this sentence, the subject battle is weak because it receives the action of the

army. It takes no action of its own--a battle cannot win itself--and so the

sentence uses the passive voice" (43-44). Hope this helps.

Affect or Effect?

We've been confusing these two since about 1494, and I still need to look

them up every time I use them. The following explanation is from The

Longman Writer's Companion: "Affect is a verb meaning to 'influence.'