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). 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.

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

USING THE PASSIVE

(a)   Rice is grown in India. (b)   Our house was built in 1890. (c)   This olive oil was imported from Spain.	Usually the passive is used without a “ by phrase.” The passive is most frequently used when it is not known or not important to know exactly who performs an action. In (a): Rice is grown in India by people, by farmers, by someone. In sentence (a), it is not known or important to know exactly who grows rice in India. (a), (b), and (c) illustrate the most common use of the passive, i.e., without the “by phrase.”
(d)   Life on the Mississippi was written by        Mark Twain.	The “by phrase” is included only if it is important to know who performs an action. In (d), by Mark Twain is important information.
(e)   My aunt made this rug. (active) (f)   This rug was made by my aunt.        That rug was made by my mother.	If the speaker/writer knows who performs an action, usually the active is used, as in (e). The passive may be used with the “by phrase” instead of the active when the speaker/writer wants to focus attention on the subject of a sentence. In (f) the focus of attention is on two rugs.

Example :

People grow corn in Iowa.                  Corn is grown in Iowa

INDIRECT OBJECTS AS PASSIVE SUBJECTS

(a)   Someone gave Mrs. Lee[LO]  an award        [DO]. (b)   Mrs. Lee was given an award.	LO= indirect object. DO= direct object. Either an indirect object or a direct may become the subject of a passive sentence. (a), (b), (c), and (d) have the same meaning.
(c)   Someone gave an award to Mrs. Lee. (d)   An award was given to Mrs. Lee.

Example :

Someone handed Ann a menu at the restaurant.

(indirect object = Ann)            Ann was handed a menu at the restaurant.

Passive Of Verbs That Take Two Objects

With verbs that take indirect objects, either the direct or the indirect object may be the grammatical subject of the passive verb.

                        Active              The company will give us the guarantee in writing

                        Passive            We will be given the guarantee in writing

                                                                          Or

                                                The guarantee will be given (to) us in writing.

                                                (To is optional in the passive)

  Example          : She sent her husband a telegram

                           Her husband was sent a telegram

      Present simple am/is/are + Verb-3

Active             : Somebody clean this room everyday

Passive            : This room is cleaned everyday

      Many accidents are caused by dangerous driving

      I’m not often invited to parties

      How many people are injured inroad accident everyday

       Past simple was/were + Verb-3

Active             : Somebody cleaned this room yesterday

Passive            : This room was cleaned yesterday

      During the night we were all waken up by a loud explosion

      When was that castle built

      The house wasn’t damaged in the storm but a tree was blown down

       Present continuous am/is/are + Verb-3

Active             : Somebody is cleaning the room at the moment

Passive            : The room is being cleaned at the moment

      Look at those old houses! They are being knocked down

      (shoop assistant to customer) Are you being served, madam?

      Past continuous was/were being + Verb-3

Active             : Somebody was cleaning the room when I arrived

Passive            : The room was being cleaned when I arrived

      Suddenly I heard footsteps behind me. We were being followed

 

      Present perfect have / has been + Verb-3

Active             : The room looks nice. Somebody has cleaned it                                

Passive            : The room looks nice. It has been cleaned                                

      Have you heard the news? They president has been shot

      Have you ever been bitten by a dog?

      I’m not going to the party. I haven’t been invited

      Past perfect had been + Verb-3

Active             : The room looked much better. Somebody had cleaned it  

Passive            : The room locked much better. It had been cleaned

      Jim didn’t know about the change of plans. He hadn’t been told.

Reference :
Azar, Betty Schrampfer. UNDERSTANDING AND USING ENGLISH GRAMMAR Second Edition. New Jersey: Englewood Cliffs, 1989.

Buku SPMB konsultan Pendidikan Salemba Group divisi bimbingan tes alumni    salemba Jakarta.

Frank, Marcella. Modern English : Exercises For Non-Native Speakers Part 1 of Speech. New York: Prentice Hall, Inc, 1972.

http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/passive.htm