Portal:Linguistics/Featured article/September 2008

In grammar, the voice (also called gender or diathesis) of a verb describes the relationship between the action (or state) that the verb expresses and the participants identified by its arguments (subject, object, etc.). When the subject is the agent or actor of the verb, the verb is in the active voice. When the subject is the patient, target or undergoer of the action, it is said to be in the passive voice.

For example, in the sentence:


 * The cat ate the mouse

the verb "ate" is in the active voice, but in the sentence:


 * The mouse was eaten by the cat

the verbal phrase "was eaten" is passive.

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