Passive 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). 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."
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.
|
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.
- [
Having been] designed for off-road performance, the Pathseeker does not always behave well on paved highways.
http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/passive.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_passive_voice
