THE PASSIVE VOICE

 

Usually we use the active voice when making sentences, but when we wish to deemphasize the subject of an action, or when the subject is unknown, we can use the passive voice.  Here is an example:

 

Active voice:         The shark ate the boy.

Passive voice:        The boy was eaten (by the shark).

 

The first sentence is fine, grammatically speaking, but because the boy is more important to us than the shark, we would probably use the second form.

 

FORMING THE PASSIVE VOICE

In the active voice, we have a subject, a verb, and sometimes an object.  We can change any active voice sentence that has an object to a passive voice sentence.  The active object becomes the passive voice subject.

 

Active Voice Sentence	Passive Voice Sentence
Shakespeare wrote Hamlet.	Hamlet was written by Shakespeare.
The optometrist repaired my glasses.	My glasses were repaired (by the optometrist).
Workers make these boots in Slova­kia.	These boots are made in Slovakia (by workers).

 

The passive voice verb is constructed as follows:

 

TO BE                    +              past parti­ciple

(in same tense as active voice verb)     (of active voice verb)

 

Examples:

Active Voice Verb	Passive Voice Verb		Active Voice Verb	Passive Voice Verb
makes	is made		made	was made
is making	is being made		has made	has been made
will make	will be made		is going to make	is going to be made

 

Examples of passive modals:

Look at that crazy driver!  People like that should be arrested (by the police).

Celine told me that this song might be included on her next album.

 

There is also a passive infinitive form which is: TO BE + past participle

Examples:

          The baby likes to be rocked slowly.

          Lucien Bouchard hopes to be elected again.     

 

NoNonsense English
© Copyright 2001 by Eric Squire