Why did the speaker and niks innocently look grammarians like in the story passive voice ?
Answers
In grammar, the voice 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 doer of the action, the verb is in the active voice. When the subject is the patient, target or undergoer of the action, the verb is said to be in the passive voice. Voice is sometimes called diathesis.[1]
For example, in the sentence:
The cat ate the mouse.
the verb "ate" is in the active voice. However, in the sentence:
The mouse was eaten by the cat.
the verbal phrase "was eaten" is passive.
In the sentence:
The hunter killed the bear.
the verb "killed" is in the active voice, and the doer of the action is the "hunter". A passive version of the sentence is:
The bear was killed by the hunter.
where the verbal phrase "was killed" is followed by the word "by" and then by the doer "hunter".