At voicesverbal they inform the relationship between the thing referred to and the participants of what is reported. There are three verbal voices: active voice, passive voice and reflective voice. Check out how they work below.
Read too: O are verb modes?
Active voice
We note that the active voice occurs when the subject practice the action expressed by the verb, being traditionally called an agent. Thus:
The cat |
caught |
the mouse. |
(subject agent) |
(verb) |
(patient object) |
Although, the subject does not always play the role of agent, despite the verb be in the active voice. Let's look at prayer as an example:
The cat fell off the roof.
In this case, the verb is in the active voice, but the cat, despite being a subject, has passivity instead of activity, as it suffers an action instead of acting.
The same happens in this example that refers to the game that eliminated Brazil from the home cup:
The Brazilian team was badly beaten by Germany.
The phrase is in the active voice, but the Brazilian team (subject) is not an agent, because it is receiving and not practicing the action expressed by the verb.
Thus, despite serving the nomenclature, the semantic level it's secondary. That is, it does not matter if the subject is actually acting in the real world for the active voice structure to exist. That's why it's important don't take as synonyms the terms subject and agent to set the active voice.
passive voice
analytic passive voice
Passive voice is a construction in which the direct object takes on the function of subject. So, the syntactic structure subject-verb-object of the original sentence is inverted, but the meaning of the statement remains.
The mouse |
was caught |
by the cat. |
(patient subject) |
(auxiliary + participle) |
(passive agent) |
In almost all cases the subject is patient, that is, suffers, receives or enjoys the action. The core of the passive form is the verb always in the participle, variable in number (singular/plural) and gender (male/female), that is, according to the subject.
Looking at the example, you can see that the passive is made up of a auxiliary verb (often to be) that accompanies the verb in the participle. This is why this type of passive voice is known as analytical.
synthetic passive voice
In addition to the analytic passive, we also have in Portuguese the so-called pronominal passive. It is formed by pronoun if, which has the passive function. In this type of construction, there is no auxiliary verb, that's why some grammarians call it synthetic passive. Besides, there is no passive agent.
precious paintings |
saved themselves |
in the museum fire. |
(patient subject) |
(pronominal passive voice) |
(adverbial adverbial) |
precious paintings |
were saved |
in the museum fire. |
(patient subject) |
(analytical passive voice) |
(adverbial adverbial) |
Know more: Ten Portuguese tips about verbs
How to go from active to passive voice and vice versa
Let's go back to the first examples of active voice and passive voice:
The cat |
caught |
the mouse. |
(subject agent) |
(verb) |
(patient object) |
The mouse |
was caught |
by the cat. |
(patient subject) |
(auxiliary + participle) |
(passive agent) |
From this scheme it is possible to infer that, to convert the active voice into passive voice, the verb active is placed in the participle and the auxiliary verb is conjugated in the same form as the verb active. The subject of the active voice becomes the agent of the passive; the direct object of the active voice becomes the subject of the passive and the participle agrees with the new subject.
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But not all active builds can be turned into passive. If we tried to apply the scheme to:
Paula was shot.
The phrase obtained would be:
A shot was taken by Paula.
We see it's impossible, simply because there needs to be an agent subject to be converted into a patient. Paula, in this case, is not acting, she is just experiencing an action as a subject.
The first reason someone chooses to use the passive voice over the active voice is the desire to change the perspective of the scene. In a passage from “Os Maias”, from Eça de Queirós, we have: “Carlos da Maia was offended there by a very well-known guy”.
Carlos da Maia |
was offended |
by a very well known guy. |
(patient subject) |
(auxiliary + participle) |
(passive agent) |
In this excerpt, the passive voice has the function of highlight the offense uttered in the Corneta do Diabo against Carlos da Maia. So much so that whoever offends is designated just as a well-known guy. If the intention was to highlight the offender, we would have: A very well-known guy offended Carlos da Maia.
a very well known guy |
offended |
Carlos da Maia. |
(subject agent) |
(verb) |
(patient object) |
reflective voice
In addition to the active and passive, there is also the reflective voice. In the reflective voice, the subject/agent and the object/patient coincide. This means that the subject performs an action, expressed by the verb, that he himself suffers or receives.
Take the prayer below as an example:
The prisoner |
if |
killed. |
(subject agent) |
(patient object) |
(verb) |
the pronoun if it means the prisoner has killed himself. This is exactly how the reflective is formed, adding to the active forms the oblique pronounsme, you, if, US, you and if, respectively with the sense of myself, yourself, yourself, ourselves, yourselves and yourselves.
But the reflective voice should not be confused with the active voice formed by verbs that express feeling, such as complaining, rejoicing, getting angry. So much so that we cannot say, for example, I am angry with myself.
There may often be ambiguity resolved by context, for example:
The worker was injured.
This sentence can be interpreted as pronominal passive (The worker was hurt) or as reflexive (The worker hurt himself). In the first interpretation, he was accidentally injured; in the second, he got hurt of his own volition.
Exercises
1 - Rearrange the columns, making the sentences correspond to the proper voice of the verbs:
( ) I don't see roses in this garden. (1) reflective
( ) The little girl combed herself. (2) passive analytical
( ) Water the plants early in the morning. (3) active
( ) The bride was accompanied by her father. (4) pronominal passive
Solution: 3, 1, 4, 2.
2 - (MED. ITAJUBÁ) - All sentences are in passive voice, except:
a) The list of new books was made.
b) A new irrigation process is studied.
c) It is always the same problem.
d) A large fridge was planned.
e) You risk your life for so little.
Solution: c, since all the others can be rewritten in the passive analytic, except “It is always the same problem”.
a) The list of new books was done.
b) New irrigation process is studied.
c) It is always the same problem.
d) A large fridge was designed.
e) For so little life, life is risky.
by Paula Piva
grammar teacher
