Active vs. Passive Voice
主動語態與被動語態
One of the fastest ways to improve your writing is to learn the difference between the active voice and the passive voice and to adopt the active voice as often as you can. But before we can start to write in the active voice, we do need to know the difference.
要加強寫作的最快方法之一，是了解主動與被動語態間的差異，並盡可能常用主動語態。但在我們能開始用主動語態寫作前，我們確實得先知道其中差別。
So, the active voice is a sentence in which the actor, or the subject, comes before the action, or the verb. For this example, "Batman threw Joker from a 70-story building." Let's find the verb. In this case, it's "threw"—that's the action. And so our actor, or our subject, is Batman. And you can see that this is an active sentence because we lead with our subject, we go into our verb, and then we go into our object, which is the person receiving the action. The result is a really active sentence. The active voice kind of sounds the way you think it would. The sentence moves in a very logical fashion. There is a lot of momentum in the sentence.
所以，主動語態是指行為者或主詞，出現在動作或動詞前的句子。舉例來說，Batman threw Joker from a 70-story building.(蝙蝠俠將小丑從一棟七十層樓高的大樓丟下)。我們來找出動詞。這個例子中，是 threw(丟)－－那就是動作。因此我們的動作者，或我們的主詞，就是蝙蝠俠。你可以看到這是一句主動的句子，因為我們以主詞開頭、來到動詞，接著來到受詞，也就是接受動作的人。結果就是一句很主動的句子。主動語態聽起來有點就是你想的那樣。句子以一種很合邏輯的方式進行。這句子很有力量。
If you wrote that sentence in the passive voice, it would look like this: "Joker was thrown from the building by Batman." In this case, our subject comes last, our verb is up here, and our object is the Joker, who's leading the sentence. So you can see it's a kind of backward construction, which can slow the reader down, because we are starting with the receiver of an action rather than the person who is initiating the action.
如果你用被動語態寫那句，那看起來會像這樣：Joker was thrown from the building by Batman.(小丑被蝙蝠俠從大樓丟下)。這個例子中，我們的主詞最後出現、我們的動詞在這上面，而我們的受詞是小丑，引導句子的人。所以你可以見到這是種反向句構，這可以讓讀者慢下腳步，因為我們是以動作接受者開頭，而不是做動作的人。
Another way to look at passive construction...you might see a sentence that looks like this: "Joker was thrown from the building." And in this case, the person who did the throwing doesn't even appear in the sentence. So oftentimes, a passive voice can sort of hide the actor.
另一種看被動句構的方式...你可能會看到句子長這樣：Joker was thrown from the building.(小丑被從大樓丟下)。在這裡，做丟的動作那人甚至沒出現在句子中。所以往往，被動語態可以有點把動作者隱藏起來。
This can be useful—say you're writing an email to a boss, and you need to say that your boss forgot to pay you that week. You might say something like, "My check did not arrive," without saying who neglected to mail the check. So, sometimes the passive voice can be your friend, but in general, active voice leads to stronger writing and a much more compelling reading experience.
這可以很實用－－好比說你在寫一封郵件給老闆，然後你需要說老闆這禮拜忘記付你薪水。你可能會說一句像是 My check did not arrive(我的支票沒到)，而不用說出是誰忘了寄支票(註一)。所以，被動語態有時候可以是你的好朋友，但通常，主動語態能產生比較強而有力的寫作，以及更加讓人信服的閱讀經驗。
註一：這裡的 My check did not arrive. 並非被動式用法的句子，此處為講者舉例不當。
- 「通常、一般來說」- In General
...but in general, active voice leads to stronger writing and a much more compelling reading experience.
...但通常，主動語態能產生比較強而有力的寫作，以及更加讓人信服的閱讀經驗。 - 「引起、導致」- Lead To
...but in general, active voice leads to stronger writing and a much more compelling reading experience.
...但通常，主動語態能產生比較強而有力的寫作，以及更加讓人信服的閱讀經驗。
