Interesting!  Passive voice is something that only transitive verbs can have, but I've never considered active voice to be limited to transitive verbs. I've always considered all verbs that are conjugated with the formula "Tense + Modal (have + -en) (be + -ing) Main Verb" to be active voice, and verbs conjugated with the formula "Tense + Modal (have + -en) (be + -ing) + be + -en + Main Verb" to be passive voice. Otherwise, wouldn't many verbs have no voice at all? Maybe that doesn't matter.

Hats off to any 8th grade teachers who wade into this question with their students. :)

Beth

Dr. Beth Rapp Young
Associate Professor, English
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University of Central Florida
"Reach for the Stars"
From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar [[log in to unmask]] on behalf of Don Stewart [[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Wednesday, March 11, 2015 11:05 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: ATEG Digest - 9 Mar 2015 to 10 Mar 2015 (#2015-19)

Beth,

If you consider "surprised" to be adjectival, then doesn't that make "was" a linking verb? In that case, there is no action verb, and thus no active voice. 

Don
​ Stewart​






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