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Strong verbs create active voice in a sentence, while weak verbs create passive voice. Proper word order and eliminating weak words can help produce strong verbs. Strong verbs create direct action and make sentences clear, while weak verbs dilute meaning and confuse the flow of the sentence.
A strong verb is a verb in a sentence that ensures active voice within that sentence, rather than weak verbs which often create a passive voice in a sentence. While some verbs can more easily create an active voice and act as strong verbs quite often, most verbs can potentially be strong or weak depending on how they are used. A strong verb typically stands alone in a sentence, often without a helper verb, and clearly indicates the action performed by the subject of the sentence. In “The dog chewed the bone,” the verb “chewed” is strong, while in a sentence like “The dog chewed the bone,” it becomes weak.
Proper word order and eliminating weak or unnecessary words within a sentence can often help produce a sentence with a strong rather than a weak verb. One of the main functions of a strong verb is to ensure an active voice within a sentence, which makes the sentence stronger and more direct. This is typically done by starting a sentence with a subject who is taking an action in that sentence, rather than starting the sentence with a direct or indirect object and incorporating the subject into the sentence later.
Using a strong verb typically creates direct action within a sentence, producing a line that is clear and easy for a reader to understand. In a sentence like “The man hit the ball with the bat and ran around the bases,” the meaning is clear and the action is strong and direct. The word “hit” in this sentence is a strong verb, as is “run” and stands alone without auxiliary verbs. A reader of this sentence can clearly tell what the action is and the whole event has a feeling of immediacy and “power” behind it.
When a strong verb is not used, however, a weak verb is typically found, and the sentence often loses the sense of force and action it might have had. If the previous example was rewritten as “The ball was hit by the man running around the bases,” the action became a bit diluted and the meaning was made less clear. The weak verb in that sentence is the sentence “he was hit”, which has taken on an auxiliary and the subject of the sentence has apparently become the ball, rather than the man. Without using a strong verb, the secondary action in the sentence, the man running around the basics, also becomes confused and the flow of the sentence becomes choppy and weak.
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