Topic 36.

PASSIVE VOICE: FORMS AND FUNCTIONS

0. INTRODUCTION

1. FORM

2. COMPONENTS
2.1. The subject
2.2. The passive auxiliary
2.3. The agent

3. PASSIVE VERB FORMS

3.1. Verbs used in the passive
3.2. Verbs that cannot be used in the passive
3.3 Active verbs with passive sense
3.4. Have and get something done

4. TYPES OF ENGLISH PASSIVES

5. THE CHOICE OF THE PASSIVE

6. CONCLUSION

7. BIBLIOGRAPHY
 0. INTRODUCTION

Compare the following sentences:

Your son broke my window
My window was broken by your son
These two sentences mean exactly the same but in the first case the verb is active and in
the second it is passive. This ‘duality’ of the same sentence is thanks to what is called
VOICE. It is a grammatical category which makes it possible to view the action of a sentence
in two ways without changing the facts reported or the meaning of the sentence.
In this topic the passive voice will be studied in depth.

1. FORM
Given two sentences…
a. John opened the letter
b. The letter was opened by John
… sentence a is said to be derived from sentence b by a process involving the following
changes:
- the nominal phrase which in the active functions as DO becomes the subject in the
passive.
- the verbal phrase in the active sentence in replaced in the passive by the
appropriate form of the auxiliary ‘be’ + past participle of the verb in the active
sentence.
- the noun phrase which functions as the subject in the active sentence becomes the
agent in the passive.

2. COMPONENTS OF THE PASSIVE SENTENCE

2.1. The subject
As afore said, the subject of the passive is what in the active sentence is the object.
However, many verbs such as give, show, send, lend, pass, bring, pay, promise, offer, tell,
sell… can be followed by two objects:
She gave her uncle a present He paid me the money
Therefore, there are two possible passives for these sentences:
Her uncle was given a present I was paid the money
A present was given to her uncle The money was paid to me
 When the subject of the active sentence is general (people, every-, society, one…), an
anticipatory it can become the subject of the passive:
People believed that witches were bad → It was believed that witches were bad
→ although this sentence can also be passivized Witches were believed to be
bad as it will be explained later (That witches were bad was believed is
possible but uncommon)

This happens with factual verbs such as say, tell, think, feel, find, imagine, know,
suppose, assume… followed by a that-clause:
Everyone knows that he is unfaithful → It is known that he is unfaithful
→ although this sentence can also be passivized He is known to be unfaithful
as it will be explained later (That he is unfaithful is known is possible but
uncommon)
  When the subject is a nominal person, anticipatory it can be avoided:
John though that the stranger was a police officer → The stranger was thought to be
a police officer
 No reflexive, reciprocal or possessive clauses are allowed to be subject of the passive:
Dracula couldn’t see himself in the mirror → Himself couldn’t be seen…*
We saw each other on the street → Each other were seen…*
He waved his hand to us → His hand was waved…*

2.2. The passive auxiliary

The passive auxiliary is ‘to be’:
He was announced man of the year
However, get can also act as a passive auxiliary to express that we are talking about
things that are done suddenly, unexpectedly or by accident, and when we are talking about
things which we do to ourselves (the focus is on the result rather than the action or agent):
My brother got hit by a ball I got lost in London
Become is also said to be an auxiliary of the passive to express change from one
condition to another, or a gradually achieved result with the passage of time:
When they first became known to us… The furniture became covered in dust

2.3. The agent

As said beforehand, the agent of the passive is the subject of the active:
A car was brought by his mother
Note that, when the agent is mentioned (as it is not always so) it is preceded by a
certain preposition, the most common one being ‘by’:
The letter was sent by Peter The car was driven by Tom

However, ‘with’ can also be used introducing the agent when this is a material…
Paint covered the wall → The wall was covered with paint
Smoke filled the room → The room was filled with smoke
… or after participles such as filled, crammed, packed, crowded:
The train was packed with commuters
Sometimes, the difference between ‘by’ and ‘with’ may involve the presence of a person:
Dave was hit by a branch (it was an accident)
Dave was hit with a branch (someone hit him with a branch)

3. PASIVE VERB FORMS

Passive verbs are made with different forms of the verb ‘to be’ + past participle of the
lexical active verb. The form that the verb ‘to be’ takes will be the same as the active verb: if
the active verb is present, ‘be’ will be present…
John painted the car → The car was painted
They speak English → English is spoken by them
Sara will give him that → That will be given to him
They have told me the news → The news have been told to me
 When we have a prepositional verb in the active sentence, the preposition will remain
immediately after the verb in the passive:
I wrote to my friend → My friend was written to (by me)
The girl looked after the children → The children were looked after by the girl

3.1. Verbs used in the passive

In theory, transitive verbs are the only ones that can be passivized as the object
becomes the subject of the passive, but we will see later on that this is not completely true
as not all transitive verbs have passive forms.
The following structures can be passivized:
- Verbs with 2 objects: He brought the flowers to me
- Verbs with object complement: Society elected him president
- Verbs with object + infinitive: I told her not to come back
In verbs such as believe, know, say, think which report people’s opinion, the passive
construction is followed by the to- infinitive:
He thinks that Smith is in England → Smith is thought to be in England
(or the afore examples Witches were believed to be bad / He is though to be
unfaithful)
3.2. Verbs that cannot be used in the passive
Intransitive verbs do not have passive form as they lack an object to become subject of
the passive and in English a subject is always needed: He died
However, let us look at these sentences…
They have a house in the city Sam married Susan last May
… we may think that, as having both an object, they can be passivized.
However, we cannot say A house is had in the city* or Susan was married by Jonh*. This is
because certain verbs take an obligatory complement (predicator complement) which cannot
be turned into the subject of a passive sentence.
Some of the verbs that take predicator complement are:
- relational verbs: have, possess, lack, suit, resemble, contain, fit, marry... i.e. His
argument lacks force (Force is lacked…*)
- verbs of measure: measure, cost, take weigh… i.e. My ticket cost 20 pounds (20
pounds is cost…*). Measure and weigh can be used in an extensive sense with a DO
and thus be passivised as in: The official weighed her suitcase → He suitcase was
weighed; She measured the room → The room was measured

3.3. Active verbs with passive sense

Note that meaning and grammar do not always go together. Some transitive verbs
(verbs of perception most of them) can be used in a passive sense without being put into the
passive voice:
⋅ to describe the smell of something:
These roses smell beautifully (meaning→it is beautiful when they are smelt)
⋅ to describe the taste of food, drink...:
This soup tastes delicious (meaning→it is delicious when it is tasted)
⋅ to express sensations or feelings:
Your skin feels cold (meaning→it is cold when it is felt)
 ⋅ to express general property or potentiality of the entity:
Your letter reads well now (meaning→it looks well when it is read now)
This product sells quickly (meaning→it is sold very quickly)
Glass breaks easily; Silver polishes better than plastic; This box doesn’t lock
properly…
In all these examples, although no agent is mentioned its activity is necessarily implicit
(someone smells the roses, touches your skin, reads the letter…)

3.4. Have and get something done

These constructions are very common in colloquial English to replace a passive
construction.
∼ Have sth done can be used to express more neatly sentences of the type ‘I employed
someone to do something for me’…
I’ve just had my car repaired I’m having my flat painted next week
(Note the difference in meaning: She had her hair cut / She cut her hair)
…or an action done by someone else (usually sth bad)
He had his car stolen He had two of his teeth knocked out
The houses had their roofs ripped off by the gale
The need to have a service done may also be expressed by need+ing: Your hair
needs cutting, The flat needs painting.
∼ Get something done is used when there is a feeling that something must be done:
I must get my car repaired I must get my room painted
To emphasize we can use the imperative form: Get your hair cut!

4. TYPES OF ENGLISH PASSIVES

According to Quirk, English passives can be classified into three different classes:
a) Agentive passives: direct active-passive relation. The agent is always possible but not
always expressed: The police arrested the criminal → The criminal was arrested (by the
police)
b) Quasi-passives: they look like passives but they really consist of the verb to be + a past
participle functioning as an adjective. It is also possible to insert an intensifier: He was
(very) interested in Linguistics; The modern world is highly industrialised
c) Non-agentive passives: they have no active transformation or possibility of agent addition,
since no performer of the action is conceived of: We are supposed to get home early; I am
used to go to the gym, She gets dressed really quickly…
d) Pseduo-passives: they have no explicit agent but its activity is necessary (all in 3.3.)

5. THE CHIOCE OF THE PASSIVE

The choice between active and passive constructions often depends on what has already
been said or on what the listener already knows. As English is end-focus, the new
information is usually at the end. So in the sentence Your son broke the window, the listener
does not know about the window, so the speaker makes it the object of the sentence. But in
the sentence The window was broken by your son, what is known is the window and the
agent of the action is left at the end as the new information.
 As we can see, the passive construction is not merely a variant of the active voice.
Therefore, English almost always has a reason to justify the use of one or another of the
voices. Thus, the choice of the passive is often determined by one of the following reasons:
> When the construction facilitates the connection of one sentence with another:
He stood up to speak and was listened by the great crowd present
When he arrived home he was arrested
> When the active subject is unknown or cannot be stated:
Her father was killed
The road has been closed
> When it is obvious who the agent is or when the subject is general:
He was elected Member of Parliament
Bicycles are widely used in Amsterdam
> Passives are very common in scientific writing and in descriptions of processes
where the focus is on the actions performed rather than on the person who does them:
The solution has finally been discovered
Then the bricks are packed into boxes of 24
> According to the principle of end-weigh (shortest first, longest last), we often
prefer to put longer and heavier expressions at the end of a sentence, so that is why we
choose the passive:
I was annoyed by Mary wanting to tell everyone what I did last night in the
party (If this sentence was in active the subject would be really long: Mary
wanting to … annoyed me and it wouldn’t sound natural)
> To change the focus of attention (passives can change the emphasis of a
sentence):
Jack won the prize (focus on Jack)
The prize was won by Jack (focus on the prize)
> Either out of politeness, to avoid blaming someone else or even the self, the
speaker wishes to mask the origin of the action:
I’m afraid the fax hasn’t been sent

In general, passives are probably more common in written language where there tends
to be less use of personal reference, in some contexts, since the audience may be unknown.

So what we can conclude is that active forms are more common when we want to
mention the people who make things happen; whereas passives are more objective rather
than personal.

6. CONCLUSION
 Although the passive in English is similar to the passive in Spanish, and therefore the
concept is not or should not be difficult to our students, the main problems that we have to
face when presenting this topic to the class is the difference in use that both languages make
of this structure.
For instance, English used more passives than Spanish; in turn, Spanish uses the
‘reflexive passive’ where the agent is not stated (English lacks this form as a subject is
always needed). Moreover, in English both objects (DO and IO) can become subject of the
passive, whereas in Spanish only the first one can be.
So these little but important differences should be left clear to our students and
make them be familiar to them if we want to achieve a certain level of communicative
competence in the students.

7. BIBLIOGRAPHY
QUIRK. A University Grammar of English
LEECH, et al. A Communicative Grammar of English
VINCE, M. Advanced Language Practice
DOWNING et al. A University Course in English Grammar
THOMPSON et al. A Practical English Grammar