Whether the subject is the one doing the action or the one it is done to — active versus passive.
In precise terms
A category governing the mapping between semantic roles and grammatical relations. The passive promotes a patient to subject and demotes or omits the agent; other voices include middle, antipassive and causative.
An example
Das Haus wurde 1890 gebaut.
The house was built in 1890.
What is going on here
The patient 'das Haus' has become the subject, and the agent is not mentioned. German builds this with 'werden' plus a past participle. The event is unchanged; only the packaging differs.
Why this matters when you are learning a language
The passive lets you keep talking about the same topic when the doer changes or is unknown, which is why it dominates academic and journalistic register. Some languages disprefer it strongly, and translating an English passive directly can sound wrong.
Across languages
Japanese has an 'adversative' passive implying the subject was affected negatively. Spanish often prefers 'se' constructions over a full passive. Ergative languages have an antipassive, which does roughly the mirror-image job.
Related terms
- SubjectBeginner — The part of a clause that the verb agrees with — usually who or what performs the action.
- ObjectBeginner — The part of a clause that the action is done to.
- Transitive and intransitive verbsIntermediate — A transitive verb takes an object; an intransitive one does not.
- ValencyAdvanced — How many participants a verb requires.
- ErgativityAdvanced — A case system where the doer of a transitive action gets a special marking that intransitive subjects do not.
Where to go next
- Language guides — See grammatical and lexical categories used in context.
- Terminology quiz — Test the terms on this page.