Every morning, the sun rises. The tall woman will brush her teeth. Your bravery saved the town.
The tree grew very tall. My enemy is planning his attack.
The dog ate the meat. The explorers discovered a new river.
“Everything in the world irritates her. " Find the verb. The only word that describes an action is “irritates”, so “irritates” must be the verb. Find the subject. What is irritating? “Everything in the world” is irritating, so the entire phrase “Everything in the world” is the subject. Find the object. What is being irritated? The person described as “her” is being irritated, so “her” is the object.
This essay was written last year. The delicious dinner was cooked by a professional cook. Elephants are protected from hunters by international law.
The city was destroyed by the meteor. All the ice cream had been eaten already. The music was played beautifully.
The child was raised by her mother. World War I was started by an assassin.
“None of them had been so badly treated by their own teacher before. " Find the passive verb. This sentence might sound confusing because the writer has added some adverbs in the middle of the verb! The full verb is “had been (. . . ) treated”. If it makes the sentence easier to follow, you can treat the verb as “had been so badly treated. " Find the subject. What had been so badly treated? None of them had been so badly treated. “None of them” is the subject of the sentence. Find the agent. Who had treated “none of them” so badly before? Their own teacher had treated “none of them” so badly before. “Their own teacher” is the agent of the passive sentence.
“The flower bloomed every night. " This sentence is about “a flower that bloomed. " You didn’t have to change the sentence to say that, so it’s an active sentence. “The river was crossed by the oxen. This sentence is about “oxen that crossed a river. " You had to change the order of the nouns (river and oxen), so the original sentence is passive. “The book was written two hundred years ago. " This sentence is about “Someone that wrote a book. " You had to add a whole new noun (someone) to guess who did the writing! The original sentence is definitely passive.
“I can’t text right now. My phone is being repaired. " is more useful than “I can’t text right now. The electronics store staff is repairing my phone. " “Our son Robert was delivered at County Hospital last night!” tells your family the news it wants to hear right away. “The doctors at County Hospital delivered our son Robert last night!” puts the focus on the doctors, whom Uncle Joe probably doesn’t care about.
This use comes up often in politics and news announcements. Keep an eye out for a celebrity, politician, or company spokesman that says “Mistakes were made. " so they can avoid admitting that “I made mistakes. “[13] X Trustworthy Source University of North Carolina Writing Center UNC’s on-campus and online instructional service that provides assistance to students, faculty, and others during the writing process Go to source
“Slaves were treated badly in the early US. " can be rewritten as “___ treated slaves badly in the early US. " Depending on your point, you might use the subject “slave owners,” “the judicial system,” or one of many other nouns. “Cancer has been called the most dangerous threat to senior citizens. " makes a claim without referring to a source. Rewrite this as “___ calls cancer the most dangerous threat to senior citizens. " If you are not sure what the subject of this new active sentence is, you might not have enough evidence to make this claim.
