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Passive Voice
Passive Voice is a sentence that the subject is a job or suffer something.
[Thing receiving action] + [be] + [past participle of verb] + [by] + [thing
doing action]
Examples :
- She is called by mother
- An elephant was killed by the hunter
In the first sentence, she is a job that is called,
whereas in the second sentence of an elephant suffering from something
that is killed.
- In a passive voice sentence, the subject
and object flip-flop. The subject becomes the passive recipient of the
action.
- Because the subject is being "acted
upon" (or is passive), such sentences are said to be in the passive
voice.
- These examples show the subject being acted upon
by the verb.
- The boy was jumped on by the dog.
Boy (subject) was being
jumped on (verb)
- A book report will be given by Kristy to the
class.
Report (subject) will be given
(verb).
- My paper was eaten by the computer.
Paper (subject) was being eaten
(verb).
Difference between Passive Voice
and Past Tense
Many people confuse the passive voice with the past
tense. The most common passive constructions also happen to be past tense (e.g.
“I’ve been framed”), but “voice” has to do with who, while “tense” has to do
with when.
Passive and Active Voices
Verbs are also said to be either active (The
executive committee approved the new policy) or passive (The new
policy was approved by the executive committee) in voice. In the
active voice, the subject and verb relationship is straightforward: the subject
is a be-er or a do-er and the verb moves the sentence along. In the passive
voice, the subject of the sentence is neither a do-er or a be-er, but is
acted upon by some other agent or by something unnamed (The new
policy was approved). Computerized grammar checkers can pick out a passive
voice construction from miles away and ask you to revise it to a more active
construction. There is nothing inherently wrong with the passive voice, but if
you can say the same thing in the active mode, do so (see exceptions below).
Your text will have more pizzazz as a result, since passive verb constructions tend
to lie about in their pajamas and avoid actual work.
We find an overabundance of the passive voice in
sentences created by self-protective business interests, magniloquent
educators, and bombastic military writers (who must get weary of this
accusation), who use the passive voice to avoid responsibility for actions
taken. Thus "Cigarette ads were designed to appeal especially to
children" places the burden on the ads — as opposed to "We designed
the cigarette ads to appeal especially to children," in which
"we" accepts responsibility. At a White House press briefing we might
hear that "The President was advised that certain members of Congress were
being audited" rather than "The Head of the Internal Revenue service
advised the President that her agency was auditing certain members of
Congress" because the passive construction avoids responsibility for
advising and for auditing. One further caution about the passive voice: we
should not mix active and passive constructions in the same sentence: "The
executive committee approved the new policy, and the calendar for next
year's meetings was revised" should be recast as "The
executive committee approved the new policy and revised the
calendar for next year's meeting."
Take the quiz (below) as an exercise in recognizing
and changing passive verbs.
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.†
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.
|
|
|
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.
- [
Having
been] designed for off-road performance, the Pathseeker does not
always behave well on paved highways.
Passive Voice
Infinitive
Ex: Active : To write, to sell
Passive : To be written, To be sold
Present Simple
Ex: Active : I see, we see
Passive : I am seen, we are seen
Present Continous
Ex: Active : We are seeing
Passive : We are being seen
Present Perfect
Ex: Active : I have seen
Passive : I have been seen
Past Simple
Ex: Active : I saw
Passive : I was seen
Past Perfect
Ex: Active :
He had seen
Passive : He had been seen
Buku Complete English Grammar
Special Edition - Mr.George Wilkinson, Drs. Dony Hariyanto
Buku
belajar bahasa inggris – Meilany W ; 2012
