Do you know what voice is? This article will provide you with all of the information you need on a voice, including its definition, usage, example sentences, and more!
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Kevin
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November 17, 2021
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Common Questions
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What is voice?
Voice is often used to talk about English passive voice and the active-voice version in English grammar. According to EF, passive voice, or a passive sentence, is a sentence in which the subject of the sentence is acted upon by the verb. In active voice, the grammatical subject of the verb is performing the action. While the appropriate form of the verb may be used such as the past conditional or present conditional, a great deal of meaning can be lost when not using active voice. English verb tenses work in a variety of ways, but the infinitive passive voice can be difficult to decipher as compared to something like the simple past, simple present, or future tense. In most cases, use a verb’s active equivalents in which the doer of the action is presented first. Avoid the passive form for both short passive and long passive sentences, as it is considered poor voice.
According to Dictionary, the term voice can also refer to the faculty or power of uttering sounds through the mouth by the controlled expulsion of air, the sound or sounds uttered through the mouth of living creatures, the musical sound of a singing voice, the sound made by the vibration of the vocal cords when modified by the resonant effect of the tongue and mouth, verbal inflections, a speech sound formed by the larynx, a set of syntactic devices, the range of such sounds, the study of phonetics, a vocal utterance, and more, such as a term in telecommunications.
What are examples of passive voice?
Passive voice can be used in many different contexts in the English language. Trying to use a word or grammatical technique in a sentence is one of the best ways to memorize what it is, but you can also try making flashcards or quizzes that test your knowledge. Try using this term of the day in a sentence today! Below are a couple of examples of passive voices that can help get you started incorporating this tool into your everyday use. Take a look at these passive voice examples from Your Dictionary, EF and Ginger and see how many you can identify the passive voice in!
- The house will be cleaned by me every Saturday.
- That piece is really enjoyed by the choir.
- We are to be going to the zoo for my birthday tomorrow.
- The flat tire was changed by Sue.
- The musical notes from the pipes of an organ were danced to by the puppet.
- My car has been stolen!
- The Mona Lisa was painted by Leonardo Da Vinci.
- Every year thousands of people are killed on our roads.
- At dinner, six shrimp were eaten by Harry.
- A movie is going to be watched by us tonight.
- The staff are required by the company to watch a safety video every year.
- The entire house was painted by John.
- The Grand Canyon is visited by thousands of tourists every year.
- I noticed that a window had been left open.
- The novel was read by Mom in one day.
- The comet was viewed by the science class.
- The whole suburb was destroyed by a forest fire.
- He was pulled over and given a ticket by a police officer.
- The mass of gases was studied by the visitors.
- The students’ questions are always answered by the teacher.
- All the reservations are being made by the wedding planner.
- Money was generously donated to the homeless shelter by Larry.
- A Hard Day’s Night was written by The Beatles.
- The obstacle course was run by me in record time.
- All the cookies have been eaten.
- The accent was spoken by the voice actors in an English voice.
- The treaty is being signed by the two kings.
- The piano was played by the human beings.
- The poodles are being groomed by the stylist.
- The metal beams were corroded by the saltwater.
- The baby was carried by the kangaroo in her pouch.
- The people in politics are to be elected next week.
- The animated film was starred in by the cartoon character.
- Instructions will be given to you by the director.
- Brazil was traveled to bu the hunter
- Every night, the office is vacuumed and dusted by the cleaning crew.
- The entire stretch of highway was paved by the crew.
- The savannah is roamed by beautiful giraffes.
- The house was remodeled by the homeowners to help it sell.
- The lab reports were completed in alternative ways.
- Two dozen cookies will be baked by Susan for the bake sale.
- The film stars of the movie ET were spoken to by Spielberg.
- The repairs of the waste materials were performed by Shelley.
What are other literary techniques and devices?
There are many different literary and grammatical techniques and devices that you might see when you are reading prose or poetry. It is important to recognize these terms because they are always used for some purpose. Knowing these devices can help readers understand the author’s deeper meaning and why they are using such a device. Take a look at the below list of grammatical devices from OED and see how many you know! Then try researching ones that are unfamiliar to you.
- subjunctive
- anticipatory
- demonstrative
- periphrasis | periphrastic
- abstract
- number
- apodosis and protasis
- optative
- sentence adverb |sentence adverbial
- parasynthetic
- conditional
- personal pronoun
- prepositional object
- past participle
- transitive
- adjective
- progressive
- indefinite
- apposition
- complement
- subject
- parenthetical | parenthetically
- antecedent
- base form
- clause
- exclamation mark
- similative
- intransitive
- passive
- phrasal verb
- compound | compounding
- collocation | collocate
- prepositional passive
- filler
- morpheme
- gerund
- feminine
- article
- ellipsis | elliptical
- case
- participle | past participle | present participle
- gender
- mass noun
- declarative
- object | direct object | indirect object
- premodify | premodifier
- subjective
- plural
- proper noun | proper name
- anaphoric
- singular
- interjection
- indirect question
- agree | agreement
- appositive
- locative
- main clause
- to-infinitive
- zero
- cataphoric
- third-person
- objective
- postmodify | postmodifier
- past tense
- part of speech
- nominal relative | nominal relative clause
- definite article
- inflection | inflected | inflectional
- pro-form
- direct speech
- construction
- dual
- construed (const., constr.)
- collective noun
- pleonasm | pleonastic
- imperative (imper.)
- direct question
- determiner
- cognate object
- absolute (absol.)
- complementary
- infinitive
- agent noun
- adverb (adv.)
- accusative
- quasi-
- active
- causative
- protasis
- prepositional phrase
- direct object
- combining form (comb. form)
- copular verb | copula
- common noun
- head
- pronoun (pron.)
- intensifier
- modal verb | modal auxiliary verb | modal auxiliary
- impersonal (impers.)
- indirect object
- preposition (prep.)
- verb (v.)
- tense
- instrumental
- main verb
- auxiliary verb | auxiliary
- comparative
- person
- positive
- noun phrase
- concrete
- subordinate clause
- vocative
- combination
- possessive adjective
- first person
- perfect
- noun (n.)
- reflexive
- possessive pronoun
- present tense
- conjunction (conj.)
- non-finite
- relative
- unmarked genitive
- second person
- finite
- non-referential
- neuter
- stem
- modify | modifier
- nominative
- that-clause
- phrase (phr.)
- count noun
- adverbial | adverbially
- indirect passive
- present participle
- prefix
- possessive
- double object
- predicative
- superlative
- mood
- special use
- bare infinitive
- simple
- dative
- element
- indirect speech
- attributive
- indicative
- participial adjective
- passive infinitive
- verbal noun
- genitive
- interrogative
- masculine
Overall, voice can refer to either active or passive voice.
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