copulas

[boboy234567]

look, sound, smell, feel, taste


Should all these linking verbs be used in active voice?


Are all copulas used only in active voice?

Thank you

[OddThomas]

Can you construct a passive voice sentence with one of these verbs you would like us to evaluate?

Or would you simply like us to dismiss this task as impossible?

[Eddie88]

The verbs you show can be either a linking verb/copular or an action verb. If you can replace it with is, are or was, then it is a linking verb. If you cannot, then it is an action verb.

When they are linking verbs, they cannot be in passive voice, because they don't show an agent (as the object) doing something. It is a state of being with a subject and a subject complement, not a subject and object--a pattern that is needed for passive voice.

If they are action verbs, they can be in passive voice.

[JanessaCorrine]

Grammar checkers tend to be unnecessarily harsh about things that are not necessarily bad things in fiction.Passive voice tends to be most useful when the actor is unknown. "I was shot" vs "Someone shot me". Either phrasing is perfectly correct and no one will be confused about what you mean. Passive voice only tends to be a bad thing when all of your sentences are phrased like, "The door was opened by Bill. The book was left on the table by Bob. The lunch was cooked by Joe." and even then, sentences phrased in that way have their purpose, in shifting the emphasis of the sentence to the object.