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Sky Sports’ Monday Night Football debates always seem to scathe a few players in the new, with last Monday’s discussions centred around Newcastle forward Dwight Gayle.

in the clause "with last Monday’s discussions centred around Newcastle forward Dwight Gayle", it refers to "discussions centre around DG". it is an active voice, isn't it? "discussion" could be used as a subject to refer to verb "centre", right? see the follow example:

The discussion centred around reducing waste. ---quoted from Cambridge Dictionary.

So what Im confusing about is why they didn't say "with last Monday’s discussions centring around Newcastle forward DG ", why they use Passive voice here? Did the writer refer to "the discussion was centred around"?

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    Both forms are possible, with no difference in meaning. The clause "centred around reducing waste" is not passive.
    – BillJ
    Apr 25 at 11:51
  • thank you. In my opinion, the clause is passive, but if it isn't passive as you say, is the clause a past tense? because it use "centred" , not "centre" in this clause.
    – Thien Sneh
    Apr 25 at 12:14
  • "The discussion centred around reducing waste" is an active clause with "the discussion" as subject and the past tense "centred around reducing waste" as the VP predicate. Passive clauses normally require a form of "be" as the tensed verb.
    – BillJ
    Apr 25 at 16:53

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Centre as a verb can be either transitive or intransitive 'the discussion centred on' or 'was centred on'.

In this case it's transitive - with last Monday's discussions [being] centred on...

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  • thank you. But what Im asking about is not the prepostion referring to centre. I do know the meaning of "centre around". what I dont know about is why they use passive voice in the sentence which is "discussion centred around DG", that means the discussion was centred, why they don't use active voive in this sentence as in :"discussion centring around DG"?
    – Thien Sneh
    Apr 25 at 12:04
  • Both versions are equally valid; it's impossible to say why the writer chose one version over the other.
    – Kate Bunting
    Apr 25 at 18:22

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