The Active Voice

§ 62. The Active Voice shows that the person or thing denoted
by the subject of the sentence is the agent (the doer) of the action
expressed by the predicate verb, that it acts.

e.g. "I deny that," said Joan.

We know you've been cheating us.

Why have you done it?

George walked over to the window but did not open it.

The formation of the finite forms of the Active Voice and the
use of these forms have already been described in "Verbs", § 7-60.

Note. In a vast majority of instances the Active Voice has the meaning de-
scribed above. Yet there are cases when, owing to the lexical character of the verb,

the thing denoted by the subject of the sentence cannot be regarded as the doer of
the action. This becomes obvious if we compare the following examples:

a) The maid who opened the door for b) The door opened and Mrs Knight
me told me that Mr March was appeared with a tea tray,

waiting for me.

She closed the door softly and went The door closed and there was

straight to the telephone. silence in the large room.

In the examples under (a) the subject of the sentence is the doer of the action
but in the sentences under (b) it becomes the object — the door cannot actually
open or close by itself, the action is performed by someone else. Yet examples of
the second kind are also treated in grammar as the Active Voice since the form of
the verb is active.