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RYERSON UNIVERSITYLEARNING SUCCESS CENTRE

Understanding Active and Passive Verbs

There are many patterns of English sentences. One standard pattern is

SubjectI

(performs the

Action Verbheated

(expresses the action)

Objectthemixture(receives the action)

There is some debate among scientific writers about whether to put yourself into a labreport by using the active voice of verbs. When you use active verbs to describe whatyou did in the experiment, you make yourself or you and your lab partners thegrammatical subjects of sentences. In other words, you show that you performed the

action of the verb.S V O

EXAMPLES: I heated the mixture . . .S V O

We programmed the microcontroller . . .

The argument for active verbs is that they are clearer, more concise, and easier to read.However, many scientific writers prefer to use the passive voice. When you use passiveverbs, you do not specify who performed the action.

EXAMPLES:

S VThe mixture was heated . . . [Themixturedid not perform the action of the verb.This passive construction does not specify who did.]

S VThe microcontroller was programmed . . . [Themicrocontroller did not performthe action.]

The argument for passive verbs is that they make the report seem more objective; i.e.,passive verbs imply that anyone who conducted the experiment would get the sameresults. In your lab reports, you will have to use the type of verb your professor prefers.

NOTE: Voice and tense are not the same thing. The voice of a verb depends on whetheror not the subject performs the action. The tense of the verb indicates the time of theaction (e.g., past or present). You will use the past tense of either the active or passivevoice to describe what you did in the experiment.

past tense, active voice (I heated the mixture . . .)

past tense, passive voice (The mixture was heated . . .)

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FORMING PASSIVE VERBS

To change a sentence from active to passive,

use the object of the verb in the original sentence as the subject in the new

sentence.

S OACTIVE: I measured the actual temperature . . .

SPASSIVE: The actual temperature was measured . . .

change the verb from the active to the passive voice. There are two parts toa passive verb

in the past tense:o the helping verbwas (singular) orwere(plural)o

the past participle of the main verb, which in regular verbs ends in ed. Ifyou are not sure of the past participle of an irregular verb, check adictionary.

ACTIVE: I measured the actual temperature . . .PASSIVE: The actual temperature was measured . . .

Here are a few more examples:

ACTIVE: We calculated global efficiencies . . .PASSIVE: Global efficiencies were calculated . . .

ACTIVE: I attached a pressure transducer and thermocouple . . .PASSIVE: A pressure transducer and thermocouple were attached . . .

ACTIVE: I loaded this value into . . .PASSIVE: This value was loaded into . . .

ACTIVE: I divided the differences in the voltages by . . .PASSIVE: The differences in the voltages were divided by . . .