welcome to annis' blog: PASSIVE VOICE

What is Passive Voice ?

In English, all sentences are in either "active" or "passive" voice:

active: Werner Heisenberg formulated the uncertainty principle in 1927.

passive: The uncertainty principle was formulated by Werner Heisenberg in 1927.

In an active sentence, the person or thing responsible for the action in the sentence comes first. In a passive sentence, the person or thing acted on comes first, and the actor is added at the end, introduced with the preposition "by." The passive form of the verb is signaled by a form of "to be": in the sentence above, "was formulated" is in passive voice while "formulated" is in active.

In a passive sentence, we often omit the actor completely:

The uncertainty principle was formulated in 1927.

When to use the Passive ?

Sometimes the passive voice is the best choice. Here are a few instances when the passive voice is quite useful:

1. To emphasize an object.Take a look at this example:

100 votes are required to pass the bill.

This passive sentence emphasizes the number of votes required. An active version of the sentence (“The bill requires 100 votes to pass”) would put the emphasis on the bill, which may be less dramatic.

2. To de-emphasize an unknown subject/actor. Consider this example:

Over 120 different contaminants have been dumped into the river.

If you don’t know who the actor is—in this case, if you don’t actually know who dumped all of those contaminants in the river—then you may need to write in the passive. But remember, if you do know the actor, and if the clarity and meaning of your writing would benefit from indicating him/her/it/them, then use an active construction. Yet consider the third case.

3. If your readers don’t need to know who’s responsible for the action.

Here’s where your choice can be difficult; some instances are less clear than others. Try to put yourself in your reader’s position to anticipate how he/she will react to the way you have phrased your thoughts. Here are two examples:

Baby Sophia was delivered at 3:30 a.m. yesterday.(passive)

and

Dr. Susan Jones delivered baby Sophia at 3:30 a.m. yesterday.(active)

The first sentence might be more appropriate in a birth announcement sent to family and friends—they are not likely to know Dr. Jones and are much more interested in the “object”(the baby) than in the actor (the doctor). A hospital report of yesterday’s events might be more likely to focus on Dr. Jones’ role.

Formula of the Passive Voice

· Auxiliary verb can be primary auxiliary verb be (is, are, am, was, were, be, been, being)

· Or a combination of the two primary (is/are being, was/were being, has/have been) or primary and modal auxiliary verb (will be, will have been).

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.
Simple Present	Passive:	A letter	is written	by Rita.
Simple Past	Active:	Rita	wrote	a letter.
Simple Past	Passive:	A letter	was written	by Rita.
Present Perfect	Active:	Rita	has written	a letter.
Present Perfect	Passive:	A letter	has been written	by Rita.
Future I	Active:	Rita	will write	a letter.
Future I	Passive:	A letter	will be written	by Rita.
Hilfsverben	Active:	Rita	can write	a letter.
Hilfsverben	Passive:	A letter	can be written	by Rita.
Present Progressive	Active:	Rita	is writing	a letter.
Present Progressive	Passive:	A letter	is being written	by Rita.
Past Progressive	Active:	Rita	was writing	a letter.
Past Progressive	Passive:	A letter	was being written	by Rita.
Past Perfect	Active:	Rita	had written	a letter.
Past Perfect	Passive:	A letter	had been written	by Rita.
Future II	Active:	Rita	will have written	a letter.
Future II	Passive:	A letter	will have been written	by Rita.
Conditional I	Active:	Rita	would write	a letter.
Conditional I	Passive:	A letter	would be written	by Rita.
Conditional II	Active:	Rita	would have written	a letter.
Conditional II	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.

As you can see in the examples, adding by Rita does not sound very elegant. That’s why it is usually dropped.

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.

How to change a sentence from Active to Passive Voice, do the following:

1. Move the active sentence's direct object into the sentence's subject slot

2. Place the active sentence's subject into a phrase beginning with the preposition by

3. Add a form of the auxiliary verb be to the main verb and change the main verb's form

Because passive voice sentences necessarily add words and change the normal doer-action-receiver ofaction direction, they may make the reader work harder to understand the intended meaning.

As the examples below illustrate, a sentence in active voice flows more smoothly and is easier to understand than the same sentence in passive voice.