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In these languages, a verb is typically in the active voice when the subject of the verb is the doer of the action. In active voice, the subject of the sentence performs the action expressed by the main verb and is thus the agent. For example, in the sentence "The cat ate the fish", 'the cat' is the agent performing the action of eating. [1]
In sentences using the active voice, the subject is the performer of the action—referred to as the agent. Above, the agent is omitted entirely, but it may also be included adjunctively while maintaining the passive voice: The enemy was defeated by our troops. Caesar was stabbed by Brutus. The initial examples rewritten in the active voice yield:
The active voice is the most commonly used in many languages and represents the "normal" case, in which the subject of the verb is the agent. In the active voice, the subject of the sentence performs the action or causes the happening denoted by the verb. Sentence (1) is in active voice, as indicated by the verb form saw.
The voice [13] of a verb expresses whether the subject of the verb is performing the action of the verb or whether the action is being performed on the subject. The two most common voices are the active voice (as in "I saw the car") and the passive voice (as in "The car was seen by me" or simply "The car was seen").
The passive voice in English may appear to be in the OVS order, but that is not an accurate description. In an active voice sentence like Sam ate the apples, the grammatical subject, Sam, is the agent and is acting on the patient, the apples, which are the object of the verb, ate.
The active voice is the dominant voice used in English. Many commentators, notably George Orwell in his essay " Politics and the English Language " and Strunk & White in The Elements of Style , have urged minimizing use of the passive voice, but this is almost always based on these commentators' misunderstanding of what the passive voice is. [ 8 ]
Norwegian has several common deponents which use the -es passive ending in the active voice, instead of the usual -er active ending (and retains the -es in the infinitive, where most verbs end solely in -e): kjennes ' perceive ' lykkes ' succeed ' synes ' opine, think ' trives ' thrive ' The past tense is indicated by -d-or -t-, e.g. kjentes ...
The past progressive or past continuous construction combines progressive aspect with past tense, and is formed using the past tense of be (was or were) with the present participle of the main verb. It indicates an action that was ongoing at the past time being considered: At three o'clock yesterday, I was working in the garden.
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