Download Voice is a grammatical category which makes possible to view the

What is voice?
Examples:
Sentence (a) is in the active voice,
and (b) is in the passive voice.
Voice Constraints
i. The verb
In addition to intransitive verbs,
which are never used in the passive,
some transitive verbs do not occur
in the passive.
Voice Constraints
verbs of containing (e.g. contain,
hold, comprise)
* Twenty slices of bread are
contained by the packet.
 verbs of measure (weigh, cost,
contain, last)
* Five dollars is cost by the parking
fine.
Voice Constraints
reciprocal verbs (resemble, look
like, equal)
* Maria is resembled by her
father.
 verbs of fitting (fit, suit)
* He is suited by the jacket.
Voice Constraints
 verbs
of
possession
(have,
belonging)
* A car is had by him.
 On the other hand, only the passive
is possible with some verbs:
a. John was born in the late fifties.
b. John was said to be a good
teacher.
Voice Constraints
ii. The object
Co-reference between subject
and nominal objects blocks the
passive transformation, and
occurs with (a) reflexive, (b)
reciprocal, and (c) possessive
pronouns in the object.
Voice Constraints
 John could see himself in the
mirror.
* Himself could be seen in the
mirror.
 We could hardly see each other in
the fog.
* Each other could hardly be seen in
the fog.
Voice Constraints
iii. The meaning
The passive usually does not affect
the meaning of a sentence, but it
does affect the way you think
about the information in a
sentence because it changes the
usual order of the subject and
object of an active sentence.
Voice Constraints
Still a change of meaning may
accompany a change of voice in
verb phrases containing auxiliaries
that have more than one meaning,
e.g. shall, will and can.
 John cannot do it. (ability)
 It cannot be done (by John)
(possibility)