In the sea of English grammar, the passive voice is a unique landscape. It is not only a linguistic phenomenon, but also a way of thinking, a way of expression. It is a special form of verb that reveals the relationship between the subject and the predicate verb. In this relationship, the subject is no longer the performer of the action, but the bearer of the action. This transformation, while seemingly small, can have far-reaching consequences.
In English, there are two main types of voice: active voice and passive voice. Active voice is the basic voice of English, which emphasizes the action of the subject and is the initiator of the action. The passive voice, on the other hand, emphasizes the state of the subject, the bearer of the action. This difference makes the English expression more rich and diverse.
The passive voice exists because there are situations where we are more concerned with the bearer of the action than with the performer of the action. For example, when we say, "I've read this book," we care more about the book than with me. Therefore, we use the passive voice, which places the book in the position of the subject, emphasizing the state of the book.
The use of passive voice requires certain conditions. In general, only transitive verbs that require an object to act have a passive voice. This is because only transitive verbs have a direct object to identify the recipient of the action. In Chinese, we often use:"be""Subject""Give"and other passive words to express passive meaning, which is also because transitive verbs in Chinese can directly indicate the bearer of the action.
The passive voice is formed by "be verb + past participle of transitive verb". The verb "be" here can be is, am, are, was, were, be, being, been, etc. The past participle, on the other hand, is derived from the third form of the transitive verb. This way of composition makes the form of the passive voice fixed, easy to understand and use.
The tense change of the passive voice, which only changes the form of be, and the past participle part does not change. This is because the past participle already contains the temporal information of the action and does not need to change the tense. The form of be needs to be changed accordingly according to the tense of the sentence. This way of changing makes the tense change of passive voice simple and easy to grasp.
The same principle applies to the interrogative and negative variations of the passive voice. Interrogative inflections, just need to move the verb be before the subject. For negative conjugations, you need to add not after the verb be. This way of changing makes the interrogative and negative changes in the passive voice simple and easy to grasp.
In general, passive voice is an important phenomenon in English grammar, which enriches English expressions with its unique form and function. Understanding and mastering the passive voice can not only improve our English proficiency, but also broaden our thinking horizons, enabling us to better understand and express the world.
Passive voice