Affected participant
Who or what does it happen to?
Significado
An affected participant is someone or something that an event changes, moves, creates, uses up, or otherwise affects. It may receive an action or undergo a change without anyone doing it on purpose. Languages can show this role through endings or word order, but some have no special marker for it. Unlike Doer or cause, this participant is on the receiving or changing side of the event.
Como identificar
Ask who or what is changed, moved, made, used up, or otherwise affected, even if no doer is named.
Na tua língua materna
In a typical action sentence, the affected participant is the direct object, the person or thing the verb acts on, and follows the verb without a preposition. Short object pronouns such as me and te are common in speech, while o and a are more characteristic of writing. When something changes or moves without a named doer, the affected participant can instead be the subject.
A criança derrubou o suco.
A Marina me abraçou.
Me identifies the speaker as the person receiving the action.
O copo caiu no chão.
The affected thing is the subject; no separate doer is named.
Na tua língua de aprendizagem
With verbs such as cut or move, English usually puts the affected participant after the verb as the object, the person or thing the action is directed at. Pronouns used as objects have forms such as me, him, and them. In a sentence describing a change without a named doer, the affected participant can instead be the subject.
Mia cut the bread.
The bread is affected and comes after the verb as the object.
The noise woke me.
Me, not I, is the object form.
The ice melted.
The ice changes, but it is the subject; no doer is named.
Learners whose language marks objects with endings may rely too little on English word order and reverse the doer and the affected participant. Learners whose language uses the same pronoun form in both roles may use I or he where English needs me or him.