The
passive voice
is a
grammatical construction
(specifically, a
"voice"). The
noun
or noun phrase that would be the
object
of an active sentence (such as
Our troops defeated the enemy) appears as the
subject
of a sentence with passive voice (e.g.
The enemy was defeated by our troops).
The subject of a sentence or clause featuring the passive voice denotes the recipient of the action (the
patient) rather than the performer (the
agent). The passive voice in
English
is formed
periphrastically: the usual form uses the
auxiliary verb
be (or
get) together with the
past participle
of the main verb.
For example, Caesar was stabbed by Brutus uses the passive voice. The subject denotes the person (Caesar) affected by the action of the verb. The agent is expressed here with the phrase by Brutus, but this can be omitted. The equivalent sentence in active voice is Brutus stabbed Caesar, in which the subject denotes the doer, or agent, Brutus. A sentence featuring the passive voice is sometimes called a passive sentence, and a verb phrase in passive voice is sometimes called a passive verb.
English allows a number of passive constructions which are not possible in many of the other languages with similar passive formation. These include promotion of an indirect object to subject (as in Tom was given a bag) and promotion of the complement of a preposition (as in Sue was operated on, leaving a stranded preposition).
Use of the English passive varies with writing style and field. Some publications' style sheets discourage use of the passive voice,
while others encourage it.
Although some purveyors of usage advice, including
George Orwell
(see
Politics and the English Language, 1946) and
William Struck, Jr.
and
E. B. White
(see
The Element of Style, 1919), discourage the English passive, its usefulness is generally recognized, particularly in cases where the patient is more important than the agent,
[5] but also in some cases where it is desired to emphasize the agent.
Indetifying the English Passive
The passive voice is a specific grammatical construction; not every expression that serves to take focus away from the performer of an action is classified as an instance of passive voice. The essential components of the English passive voice are a form of the auxiliary verb be (or sometimes get), and the past participle of the main verb denoting the action. For example:
... that all men are created equal...
We have been cruelly deceived.
The captain was struck by a missile.
I got kicked in the face during the fight.
(For exceptions, see Additional passive construction below.) The agent (the doer of the action) may be specified, using a prepositional phrase with the preposition by, as in the third example, but it is equally possible to omit this, as is done in the other examples.
A distinction is made between the above type of clause, and those of similar form in which the past participle is used as an ordinary adjective, and the verb be or similar is simply acopula linking the subject of the sentence to that adjective. For example:
I am excited (right now).
This would not normally be classed as a passive sentence, since the participle excited is used adjectivally to denote a state, not to denote an action of excitation (as it would in the passive the electron was excited with a laser pulse). See Stative and adjectival uses below.
Sentences which do not follow the pattern described above are not considered to be in the passive voice, even if they have a similar function of avoiding or marginalizing reference to the agent. An example is the sentence A stabbing occurred, where mention of the stabber is avoided, but the sentence is nonetheless cast in the active voice, with the verbal noun stabbing forming the subject of the simple past tense of the verb occur. (Similarly There was a stabbing.) Occasionally, however, writers misapply the term "passive voice" to sentences of this type. An example of this loose usage can be found in the following extract from an article from The New Yorker about Bernard Madoff (bolding and italics added; bold text indicates the verbs misidentified as passive voice):
Two sentences later, Madoff said, "When I began the Ponzi scheme, I believed it would end shortly, and I would be able to extricate myself, and my clients, from the scheme." As he read this, he betrayed no sense of how absurd it was to use the passive voice in regard to his scheme, as if it were a spell of bad weather that had descended on him . . . In most of the rest of the statement, one not only heard the aggrieved passive voice, but felt the hand of a lawyer: "To the best of my recollection, my fraud began in the early nineteen-nineties."
The intransitive verbs would end and began are in fact in the active voice. Although the speaker uses the words in a manner that subtly diverts responsibility from him, this is not accomplished by use of passive voice.
Examples of misuse of the term are also found in Strunk and White's influential The element of Style. Professor Geoffrey Pullum notes that three out of four "passive voice" examples given in that book do not in fact contain passives: "There were a great number of dead leaves lying on the ground" (no sign of any passive); "It was not long before she was very sorry that she had said what she had" (again, no sign of the passive); "The reason that he left college was that his health became impaired" (here became impaired is an example of the adjectival, not passive, use of the past participle).
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.).
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. |
| | | | |
‘
| 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. |
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. |
PRESENT
1. Simple Present Tense
S + IS/AM/ARE + V 3
Contohnya:
1. I am called by the teacher
2. Mimy is bitten by a little dog
3. The house is sold by the owner.
2. Present Continuous Tense
S + AM/IS/ARE + BEING + V 3
Contohnya:
1. I am being called by the teacher
2. Mimy is being bitten by a little dog
3. The house is being sold by the owner.
3. Present Perfect Tense
S + HAVE/HAS + BEEN + V 3
Contohnya:
1. I have been called by the teacher
2. Mimy has been bitten by a little dog
3. The house has been sold by the owner.
4. Present Perfect Continuous Tense
S + HAS/HAVE + BEEN + BEING + V 3
Contohnya:
1. I have been being called by the teacher
2. Mimy has been being bitten by a little dog
3. The house has been being sold by the owner.
PAST
1. Simple Past Tense
S + WAS/WERE + V 3
Contohnya:
1. We were called by the teacher
2. Mimy was bitten by a little dog
3. The house was sold by the owner.
2. Past Continuous Tense
S + WAS/WERE + BEING + V 3
Contohnya:
1. We were being called by the teacher
2. Mimy was being bitten by a little dog
3. The house was being sold by the owner.
3. Past Perfect Tense
S + HAD + BEEN + V 3
Contohnya:
1. I had been called by the teacher
2. Mimy had been bitten by a little dog
3. The house had been sold by the owner.
4. Past Perfect Continuous Tense
S + HAD + BEEN + BEING + V 3
Contohnya:
1. I had been being called by the teacher
2. Mimy had been being bitten by a little dog
3. The house had been being sold by the owner.
FUTURE
1. Simple Future Tense
S + WILL + BE + V 3
Contohnya:
1. I will be called by the teacher
2. Mimy will be bitten by a little dog
3. The house will be sold by the owner.
2. Future Continuous Tense
S + WILL + BE + BEING + V 3
Contohnya:
1. I will be being called by the teacher
2. Mimy will be being bitten by a little dog
3. The house will be being sold by the owner.
3. Future Perfect Tense
S + WILL + HAVE + BEEN + V 3
Contohnya:
1. I will have been called by the teacher
2. Mimy will have been bitten by a little dog
3. The house will have been sold by the owner.
4. Future Perfect Continuous Tense
S + WILL + HAVE + BEEN +BEING + V 3
Contohnya:
1. I will have been being called by the teacher
2. Mimy will have been being bitten by a little dog
3. The house will have been being sold by the owner.
