What is the voice of the verb in the sentence, "In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue."?
1 Answer
Oct 18, 2016
This verb (and the whole sentence) is in Active Voice. See explanation.
Explanation:
In Active Voice sentence the subject is the doer of the action (the thing or person doing the action); here it is Columbus.
In the Passive Voice the subject is the thing upon which the action is done.
To see the difference let's compare two sentences:
John's parents built this house in 1960.
and
This house was built by John's parents in 1960
In the first sentence the subject is the person who actually did something: John's parents.
While in the second sentence the subject is a result of an action (the house). The doer is added here by an additional clause by John's parents