English Grammar (Part 2):

Active and Passive Voice

•Active Voice: The boy kicked the ball. (The focus is on the boy, he is the subject and he is doing the kicking).

•Passive Voice: The ball was kicked by the boy. (The ball is the subject, less focus on the boy, more about the ball).

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•Newspapers often use active voice to make a story seem more controversial. For example:

•The police arrested the suspect…

Rather than

•The suspect was arrested by the police.

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•The first sentence is more emotive as people will react to the fact the police have arrested someone.

Sentences and Clauses

•In the same way words form to make phrases, phrases form to make clauses. They are groups of words centred around a verb.

The boy ran up the hill    -    Subject Verb Object

Co-Ordinated Clause – when two clauses are joined together with a conjuction. Both clauses must make sense on their own.

I played football but I got injured.

I went to the shop because I ran out of milk.

I opened my window because I was hot.

Subordinate Clause – there will be a main clause which makes sense alone, and a clause that only makes sense when with the main clause.

Although I went into town, I didn’t meet my friends.

I played football, even though it was cold.

As tired as I was, I did my homework.