Grammar Terms: Voice and Punctuation

Every sentence with an action has a voice, and there are two kinds: active and passive. The voice tells you how the subject of the sentence relates to the action of the verb.

In active voice, the subject does the action. "Mia kicked the ball." Mia is the subject, and she is the one doing the kicking. Active sentences feel quick and lively, and it is easy to see who did what.

In passive voice, the subject receives the action. "The ball was kicked by Mia." Now the ball is the subject, but the ball is not doing anything. The action is being done to it.

You can spot a passive sentence by looking for two clues. First, a helping verb that is a form of "to be", like is, was, were, or has been. Second, a past participle, which is the action word like kicked, eaten, or painted. Put them together and you get "was kicked" or "has been painted".

To change an active sentence into a passive one, swap the doer and the receiver. "The dog chased the cat" becomes "The cat was chased by the dog." Notice the meaning stays the same, but the focus moves from the dog to the cat.

Writers choose the passive voice when the receiver matters more than the doer, or when we do not know who did the action: "My bike has been stolen!"

Most English sentences follow a subject, verb, object order, like "The zombie bit the man." The subject (the zombie) does the action, and the object (the man) receives it. This is called the active voice, because the subject actively does something.

To flip a sentence into the passive voice, follow these steps.

First, swap the actor and the object. The object moves to the front and becomes the new subject: "The man..."

Second, change the verb. Add a form of "to be" that matches the tense, then use the past participle of the main verb. "Bit" becomes "was bitten".

Third, add the old subject at the end with the word "by": "The man was bitten by the zombie."

You can even drop the "by" part completely if the doer is unknown or unimportant: "The man was bitten." That is one reason writers like the passive voice. It lets you hide or skip who did the action.

To go back from passive to active, just reverse the steps. Find who is really doing the action, move them to the front as the subject, and make the verb active again: "The zombie bit the man."

Try it yourself. Take "Lucy hid all the pumpkins" and see if you can rewrite it in the passive voice. The answer: "All the pumpkins were hidden by Lucy."

Here are some punctuation terms every young writer should know.

Colon: a punctuation mark that can join two complete sentences or introduce a list, an example, or a quotation. Look at this: "After visiting the llama rodeo, I realized my life goal: I want to ride llamas in every major city in the world." The colon points forward and says, get ready, here comes the important bit.

Semicolon: a mark that links two complete sentences that are closely related. "I love llamas; they are fluffy and dramatic." Each side could stand alone as a sentence, but the semicolon shows the ideas belong together.

Complex list: a list where the items already contain commas, so the items are separated with semicolons instead. That keeps everything clear and easy to read.

Appositive: a noun or noun phrase that renames another noun right beside it. "Carl, my tremendously fancy hamster, is about to become the star of his own TV show!" The phrase "my tremendously fancy hamster" tells you who Carl is.

Hyphen: a short line that joins words together, often in compound adjectives before a noun, like "a well-known author".

A compound adjective is an adjective made from two or more words that team up to describe one noun. Because several words are doing one job, we usually glue them together with hyphens.

When the compound adjective comes before the noun, use hyphens: "That well-known chicken is vicious." When the same words come after the noun, drop the hyphens: "That chicken is well known."

Why do the hyphens matter? They stop the reader from getting confused. "A small business owner" could mean an owner who is small, or someone who owns a small business. Writing "a small-business owner" makes it clear the business is small, not the person.

Numbers work this way too. "A ten-year-old boy" uses hyphens because the whole phrase describes the boy. But "the boy is ten years old" needs no hyphens because the words come after.

Some compound adjectives are so common they are always hyphenated, wherever they appear, like "up-to-date" or "part-time".

When you are not sure whether to hyphenate, ask yourself: are these words working as one describing team before a noun? If yes, bring in the hyphen.

The semicolon looks like a comma with a full stop on top, and it works like something in between the two. It is stronger than a comma but not as final as a full stop. Used well, it makes your writing sound smooth and grown up.

The most common job of a semicolon is linking two complete sentences that are closely connected. Each side must be a full sentence with its own subject and verb, able to stand alone. "Kate finished her homework early; she wanted to play outside." Both halves are complete thoughts, and the semicolon shows they belong together.

Be careful not to use a semicolon where a comma should go. A semicolon never links a full sentence to a fragment. "Because it was raining; we stayed inside" is wrong, because the first part cannot stand alone. Use a comma there instead.

Semicolons also help in tricky lists. If your list items already contain commas, separate the items with semicolons so readers do not get lost: "On our trip we visited York, England; Bath, England; and Cardiff, Wales."

You can also use a semicolon before joining words like "however" or "therefore" when they connect two full sentences: "The rain stopped; however, the pitch was still too wet."

Try swapping a full stop for a semicolon in your own writing and notice how it pulls two ideas closer together.