PASSIVE VOICE
v Use of Passive
Passive voice is used when the focus
is on the action. It is not important or not known, however, who or what is
performing the action.
Example: My
bike was stolen.
In the
example above, the focus is on the fact that my bike was stolen. I do not know,
however, who did it.
Sometimes a
statement in passive is more polite than active voice, as the following example
shows:
Example: A
mistake was made.
In this
case, I focus on the fact that a mistake was made, but I do not blame anyone
(e.g. You have made a mistake.).
v Form of Passive
Subject +
finite form of to be + Past Participle (3rd column of irregular
verbs)
Example: A letter was written.
When rewriting active sentences in
passive voice, note the following:
§
the object
of the active sentence becomes the subject of the passive sentence
§
the finite
form of the verb is changed (to be + past participle)
§
the subject
of the active sentence becomes the object of the passive sentence (or is
dropped)
Examples of Passive :
|
Tense
|
Subject
|
Verb
|
Object
|
|
|
Simple Present
|
Active:
|
Rita
|
writes
|
a letter.
|
|
Passive:
|
A letter
|
is written
|
by Rita.
|
|
|
Simple Past
|
Active:
|
Rita
|
wrote
|
a letter.
|
|
Passive:
|
A letter
|
was
written
|
by Rita.
|
|
|
Present Perfect
|
Active:
|
Rita
|
has
written
|
a letter.
|
|
Passive:
|
A letter
|
has been
written
|
by Rita.
|
|
|
Future I
|
Active:
|
Rita
|
will write
|
a letter.
|
|
Passive:
|
A letter
|
will be
written
|
by Rita.
|
|
|
Hilfsverben
|
Active:
|
Rita
|
can write
|
a letter.
|
|
Passive:
|
A letter
|
can be
written
|
by Rita.
|
|
Examples of Passive :
|
Tense
|
Subject
|
Verb
|
Object
|
|
|
Present Progressive
|
Active:
|
Rita
|
is writing
|
a letter.
|
|
Passive:
|
A letter
|
is being
written
|
by Rita.
|
|
|
Past Progressive
|
Active:
|
Rita
|
was
writing
|
a letter.
|
|
Passive:
|
A letter
|
was being
written
|
by Rita.
|
|
|
Past Perfect
|
Active:
|
Rita
|
had
written
|
a letter.
|
|
Passive:
|
A letter
|
had been
written
|
by Rita.
|
|
|
Future II
|
Active:
|
Rita
|
will have
written
|
a letter.
|
|
Passive:
|
A letter
|
will have
been written
|
by Rita.
|
|
|
Conditional I
|
Active:
|
Rita
|
would write
|
a letter.
|
|
Passive:
|
A letter
|
would be
written
|
by Rita.
|
|
|
Conditional II
|
Active:
|
Rita
|
would have
written
|
a letter.
|
|
Passive:
|
A letter
|
would have
been written
|
by Rita.
|
|
v Passive Sentences with Two Objects :
Rewriting an active sentence with
two objects in passive voice means that one of the two objects becomes the
subject, the other one remains an object. Which object to transform into a
subject depends on what you want to put the focus on.
|
|
Subject
|
Verb
|
Object 1
|
Object 2
|
|
Active:
|
Rita
|
wrote
|
a letter
|
to me.
|
|
Passive:
|
A letter
|
was
written
|
to me
|
by Rita.
|
|
Passive:
|
I
|
was
written
|
a letter
|
by Rita.
|
.
As you can see in the examples,
adding by Rita does not sound very elegant. That’s why it is
usually dropped.
v Personal and Impersonal Passive
Personal Passive simply means that the object
of the active sentence becomes the subject of the passive sentence. So every
verb that needs an object (transitive verb) can form a personal passive.
Example: They build houses. – Houses
are built.
Verbs without an object
(intransitive verb) normally cannot form a personal passive sentence (as there
is no object that can become the subject of the passive sentence). If you want
to use an intransitive verb in passive voice, you need an impersonal
construction – therefore this passive is called Impersonal Passive.
Example: he says – it is said
Impersonal Passive is not as common in English as
in some other languages (e.g. German, Latin). In English, Impersonal
Passive is only possible with verbs of perception
(e. g. say, think, know).
Example: They say that women live
longer than men. – It is said that women live longer than men.
Although Impersonal Passive is
possible here, Personal Passive is more common.
Example: They say that women live
longer than men. – Women are said to live longer than men.
The subject of the subordinate
clause (women) goes to the beginning of the sentence; the verb of perception is
put into passive voice. The rest of the sentence is added using an infinitive
construction with 'to' (certain auxiliary verbs and that are
dropped).
Sometimes the term Personal
Passive is used in English lessons if the indirect object of an active
sentence is to become the subject of the passive sentence.
The passive voice does exist for a
reason, however, and its presence is not always to be despised. The passive is
particularly useful (even recommended) in two situations:
·
When it is more important to draw our attention to the person or thing
acted upon: The
unidentified victim was apparently struck during the early morning
hours.
·
When the actor in the situation is not important: The aurora borealis can
be observed in the early morning hours.
The passive voice is especially
helpful (and even regarded as mandatory) in scientific or technical writing or
lab reports, where the actor is not really important but the process or
principle being described is of ultimate importance. Instead of writing "I
poured 20 cc of acid into the beaker," we would write "Twenty cc of
acid is/was poured into the beaker." The passive voice is also
useful when describing, say, a mechanical process in which the details of
process are much more important than anyone's taking responsibility for the
action: "The first coat of primer paint is applied immediately
after the acid rinse."
We use the passive voice to good
effect in a paragraph in which we wish to shift emphasis from what was
the object in a first sentence to what becomes
the subject in subsequent sentences.
The executive committee approved an entirely
new policy for dealing with academic suspension and withdrawal.
The policy had been written by a subcommittee on student
behavior. If students withdraw from course work before suspension can take
effect, the policy states, a mark of "IW" . . . .
The paragraph is clearly about this new policy so it
is appropriate that policy move from being the object in the
first sentence to being the subject of the second sentence. The passive voice
allows for this transition.
v
Passive Verb Formation
The passive forms of a verb are
created by combining a form of the "to be verb" with the past
participle of the main verb. Other helping verbs are also sometimes present:
"The measure could have been killed in committee." The
passive can be used, also, in various tenses. Let's take a look at the passive
forms of "design."
|
Tense
|
Subject
|
Auxiliary
|
Past
Participle |
|
|
Singular
|
Plural
|
|||
|
Present
|
The
car/cars
|
is
|
are
|
designed.
|
|
Present perfect
|
The
car/cars
|
has been
|
have been
|
designed.
|
|
Past
|
The
car/cars
|
was
|
were
|
designed.
|
|
Past perfect
|
The
car/cars
|
had been
|
had been
|
designed.
|
|
Future
|
The
car/cars
|
will be
|
will be
|
designed.
|
|
Future perfect
|
The
car/cars
|
will have
been
|
will have
been
|
designed.
|
|
Present progressive
|
The
car/cars
|
is being
|
are being
|
designed.
|
|
Past progressive
|
The
car/cars
|
was being
|
were being
|
designed.
|
A sentence cast in the passive voice
will not always include an agent of the action. For instance if a
gorilla crushes a tin can, we could say "The tin can was
crushed by the gorilla." But a perfectly good sentence would leave
out the gorilla: "The tin can was crushed." Also, when an active
sentence with an indirect object is recast in the passive, the indirect object
can take on the role of subject in the passive sentence:
|
Active
|
Professor
Villa gave Jorge an A.
|
|
Passive
|
An A was
given to Jorge by Professor Villa.
|
|
Passive
|
Jorge was
given an A.
|
Only transitive verbs (those that
take objects) can be transformed into passive constructions. Furthermore,
active sentences containing certain verbs cannot be transformed into passive
structures. To have is the most important of these verbs. We
can say "He has a new car," but we cannot say "A new car is had
by him." We can say "Josefina lacked finesse," but we cannot say
"Finesse was lacked." Here is a brief list of such verbs*:
|
resemble
|
look like
|
equal
|
agree with
|
|
mean
|
contain
|
hold
|
comprise
|
|
lack
|
suit
|
fit
|
become
|
Verbals in Passive
Structures
Verbals or verb forms can also take on
features of the passive voice. An infinitive
phrase in the passive voice, for instance, can perform various
functions within a sentence (just like the active forms of the infinitive).
·
Subject: To
be elected by my peers is a great honor.
·
Object: That
child really likes to be read to by her mother.
·
Modifier:
Grasso was the first woman to be elected governor in her own right.
The same is true of passive gerunds.
·
Subject: Being
elected by my peers was a great thrill.
·
Object: I
really don't like being lectured to by my boss.
·
Object of
preposition: I am so tired of being lectured to by my boss.
With passive
participles, part of the passive construction is often omitted, the
result being a simple modifying participial phrase.
