Active and Passive Voice

By

Syeda Ambreen Murtaza

Defining “Voice”

• “Voice” is a characteristic of verbs which indicates the relation of the verb’s action to its subject.

• The voice of a verb may be either “active” or “passive.”

Active Voice• Active voice verbs are

used when the subject is acting in a sentence.

• Example:– Cindy steered the boat.

• “Steered” is an active verb because it allows the subject to undertake an action.

Passive Voice • “Passive voice” verbs are used when the subject is being acted upon in a sentence.

• Example: – The mountain’s peak

was reached by Ed Danvers.

• “Was reached” are considered passive because they indicate that the subject (peak) is receiving an action.

So What?• Although both constructions are grammatically correct, the

active voice is usually more effective in academic and business writing because it is simpler and more direct. The passive construction is effective only when the doer of the action is unknown or irrelevant. Examples– The cruiseliner was hijacked.– The ball was hit.– The town was quarantined.

Review

• Active voice verbs: Verbs that indicate the sentence’s subject as actively acting:– Marvin hit the ball.

• Passive voice verbs: Verbs that indicated the sentence’s subject as being acted upon:– The ball was hit by Marvin

Reasons to Use the Active Voice

• Most writers prefer to use active voice because it is more direct.

• Compare

– Active: The waiter dropped the tray of food.

– Passive: The tray of food was dropped by the waiter.

Reasons to Use the Active Voice

The active voice is less awkward and clearly states relationship between subject and action.

Compare Passive: Your request for funding has been

denied by the review committee. Active: The review committee denied your

request for funding.

The active voice sentence pattern propels the reader forward through your writing thus avoiding weak prose.

When to Use Passive Voice In general, the passive voice is less

direct, less forceful, and less concise than the active voice.

Use the passive voice in the following situations:

Use passive voice when you do not know or do not want to reveal the performer of an action.

Use passive voice when you want to emphasize the receiver of an action.

Examples

• Awkward Passive: My bicycle was repainted by John.

• Deliberate Passive: My bicycle was repainted. (The performer is not mentioned and the emphasis is on the bicycle.)

Summary of verb tenses

Active Passive

Present simple We bake the bread here The bread is baked here

Present Continuous

We are baking the bread The bread is being baked

Present perfect We have baked the bread

The bread has been baked

Past Simple We baked the bread yesterday

The bread was baked yesterday

Past Continuous

We were baking the bread

The bread was being baked

Past perfect We had baked the bread The bread had been baked

Form of negatives and questions in Passive

• The bread isn’t baked in a factory.

• The jacket hasn’t been worn for years.

• Where is the bread baked ?

• Has the jacket ever been worn by anyone else?

The future and modal verbs in the passive

• We use be + a passive participle after will, be going to, can, must, have to, should etc.

• The gates will be closed this evening.

• This rubbish should be thrown away.

• This machine has to be repaired.

• The news might be announced soon.

Active Passive

Future We will bake the bread next.

The bread will be baked next.

We are going to baked the bread.

The bread is going to be baked.

Modal verb We should bake the bread soon.

The bread should be baked soon.

We ought to bake the bread.

The bread ought to be baked.

The passive & The agent

• We mention the agent in passive when it is required.

• The cheque must be signed by the manager.

• The medals were presented by Nelson Mandela.

• We do not mention it:1. We do not mention the agent if it does not

add any new information.

• All our money and passport were stolen.

• A man was arrested last night.

2.We do not mention the agent if it is not important.

• The streets are cleaned every day.

• Oil has been discovered at the North Pole.

3. It is sometimes difficult to say who the agent is.

• This kind of jacket is considered very fashionable these days.

• A number of attempts have been made to find the Loch Ness monster.

Use of passive

• We use passive in textbook and reports. We use it to describe activities in industry, science and technology, also for official rules. The passive is also often used in news reports.

Special passive structure • It is said that:

• We can use this structure it + passive verb + clause with verbs of reporting. We use this structure when we cannot say or do not need to say who the speaker is, for example in news reports.

• It is thought that the company is planning a new advertising campaign.

• It was reported that the president had suffered a heart attack.

• He is said to

• We can also use subject + passive verb + to-infinitive.

Rite is said to have left her job

• This structure is also used in news reports.

• United were expected to win.

• The company is thought to be planning a new advertising campaign

• We can use the following verbs in this structure :

• Believe, expect, find, know, report, say, think, understand.

Compare these situations

• Claire decorated the room.

( she did the work herself )

• Claire had the room decorated.

( A decorated did the work)

• We can use have in a passive structure. Claire had the room decorated means that she arranged for a decorator to do it for her as a professional service.

Form Have Something DONE

You should Have Your car Serviced Regularly

Mark usually Has His suits Cleaned At Superclean

We Had The television

Repaired Only last year

You’ve Had Your hair Cut

Our neighbours are

Having A new garage

Built

Is Melanie Having A new cooker

Installed

Get something done

• We can also use get something done.

• We must have another key made.

OR

• We must get another key made.

TO-infinitive ing - form

Active Passive

To- infinitive

I ought to meet Sarah at the airport

I hope to be met at the airport

Ing-form I insist on meeting you at the airport . ( I meet people)

I have being met at the airport. ( people meet me )

• I want to play volley ball. I hope to be met at the airport.

• The minister agreed to answer questions. He agreed to be interviewed on television.

Any Questions???

QuizDecide which of the following sentences use the passive voice and which sentences use the active voice. Correct the sentences that contain either inappropriate uses of passive voice or an abrupt shift from active to passive

voice.

Example:

-Before I began my research, only German fascism was studied by me.

Passive construction

-Before I began my research, I only studied German fascism.

Professor Warren assigned each group a research project; however, the documentary sources were not located.

Incorrect Active-Passive Shift

Professor Warren assigned each group a research project; however, he could not locate the documentary sources.

For the opening flag ceremony, a dance was choreographed by Kema Jones to Bill Withers’ song “Lean on Me.”

Passive Construction

For the opening flag ceremony, Kema Jones choreographed a dance to Bill Withers’ song “Lean on Me.”

When the tickets are ready, the travel agent notifies the client. Each ticket is then listed on a daily register form, and a copy of the itinerary is filed.

Incorrect Active-Passive Shift

When the tickets are ready, the travel agent notifies the client. The agent then lists the ticket on a daily register form and files a copy of the itinerary.

Seismologists have examined data concerning the recent earthquake, and reports will be filed.

Incorrect Active-Passive Shift

Seismologists have examined data concerning the recent earthquake, and they will file reports.

Problems of famine, pollution, dwindling resources, and arms control were discussed by the senator.

- Passive construction

The senator discussed problems of famine, pollution, dwindling resources, and arms control.

• Whenever an error was found by Mrs. Clark, the entire paper had to be rewritten by the student.

Passive Construction

Whenever an error was found by Mrs. Clark, the student had to rewrite the entire paper.