Is This Passive Voice?

Is that phrase in bold considered passive voice? You can break it to me. I can take it.

 

It is a past participle clause, representing passive voice (the man is having something done to him by the fishing tackle).

 

sounds good, but what do i know?... i bow to your superior knowledge of grammatical nomenclature, sir mad!

 

And up my other sleeve: present participle representing active voice "Holding the fishing tackle, the man walked down the path".
If only all the fancy grammar would just come together in a true masterpiece...sigh...

 

Or..."Encumbered by his fishing tackle, the man stumbled down the path".

 

I think "stumble" is better than "sway" but I don't have the context. Maybe he was drunk or something, so "sway" is actually what he is doing. BTW, starting a sentence with either a past or a present participle is considered slightly old-fashioned at best, and rather "weak" writing at worst. You should try not to do it too often.

 

How about 'staggered'?

 

what a very odd sentence...

and yes it's passive voice - when you have to use "by" it's always passive voice.

An amusing "check" you can use is this: if you can add "by zombies" at the end of the sentence, then it's passive.

So, for example, "Encumbered by zombies"

 

I haven't the slightest clue, but that's why I'm on this thread.

 

Passive voice is grammatical, and relates to how a sentence is structured. Although, it mostly comes down to verbs.

Note: there is nothing wrong with a passive sentence!

Lets break down a sentence.

We will have a subject: what the sentence is about (usually a person, place or thing), and the subject is usually doing something or being described -- and the subject is normally at the beginning of a sentence;

The object: comes in after an action (can also be a person, place or thing) and is what the action is usually done on. Not all sentences will have an object, though;

Verbs: need I say more? *grins* Normally an action, but can also describe a state of existence.

Agency is also important, and describes sentence relation to the action. So, both the subject and the object can be an agent (doing the action), or the patient (receiving the action).

Right, passive voice results when the object of the sentence is doing the action (or is the agent), and the subject is receiving it (or is the patient). To spot it simply examine the relationship between the subject, object, and verb of a sentence. If the object is the thing doing the verb, the sentence is passive. If the subject is the thing doing the verb, the sentence is active.

It really is that simple.

 

I wasn't even aware that you can have passive voice in a phrase. I thought you needed a complete sentence. Oh well - you learn something new every weekend.