The Passive Voice

Sources: The Grammar Book by Celce-Murcia and Larsen Freeman

and Cutting Edge (Advanced) by Cunningham, moor, and Carr (Pearson Longman)

Passive voice is used when you want to place the receiver of the action in the subject position in order to
emphasize it. When you want to deemphasize the agent (doer), the passive is a way to do so.

-The passive voice is more limited than the active in that only transitive verbs (verbs that take objects) may be
used.

-The more definite the subject is, the more acceptable the sentence in passive form is: (This poem was written by
William Blake.)

-With stative verbs ( verbs that refer to a state, unchanging condition) , the more indefinite the object in the by
phrase, the more likely it is to be acceptable in its passive form: (Arthur was liked by everyone.)

-The more the verb denotes a physical action, as opposed to a state, the more acceptable its use in a passive
sentence is: (The ball was kicked over the goalposts.)

The passive is used when the agent is not to be mentioned becaus e :

1. it is redundant or easy to supply. (ie. Coconuts are grown in Colombia.)
2. When the agent is unknown. ( ie. The school was robbed yesterday.)
3. It is very general (ie. United States can not be described as an Anglo-saxon nation, anymore. )
4. The speaker /writer is being tactful. (ie. Margaret was given some advice about selecting courses. )
5. The speaker is being evasive. (ie. An error was made in the school budget.)
6. The passive is used when the nonagent (receiver) is more closely related than the agent (doer) to the
theme.( ( ie. The end s of the table were cushioned.)
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In passive voice, most of the times the agent (doer) is not mentioned and if it is, it appears after the
preposition by.
Active voice : The boss promoted Sean.
Passive voice: Sean was promoted. (note the auxiliary be in past form)
Passive voice with the agent included: Sean was promoted by his boss. (include a prepositional
phrase with by and its complement.

The agent is mentioned in the passive voice :

-When the agent is new information. (ie. While Jill was walking down the street, her purse was snatched
by a young man.
-When the agent is nonhuman. (ie., All the household devices are turned on and off by this machine.
-When the agent is a well-known personage and should be included as propositional information. (ie., The
Mona Lisa was painted by da Vinci.)
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Be is the prototypical auxiliary verb in passive voice, but there are others that can fulfill this function.
The get passive is quite normal in informal, conversational English. (ie., Barry got invited to the party.)

An important difference between the get passive and the be passive is that get does not function as a
true auxiliary in questions and negative statements the way be does. As a result do must serve as an
operator for get in questions and negative statements.

BE PASSIVE GET PASSIVE

a. Was he arrested? a. Did Bruno get arrested?
b. No. He wasnt even caught. b. No. He didnt even get caught

The get passive occurs more readily with the perfect progressive than the be passive. (ie., Her plans
have been getting sidetracked for years. )

Some combinations of the passive with tense, aspect, and modals

-With modals: Knowledge can be taught in school.

-With simple present: Knowledge is taught in school.

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-With present perfect: Knowledge has been taught in school.

-With present progressive: Knowledge is being taught in school.

-With simple past- Knowledge was taught in school.

-With past progressive: Knowledge was being taught in school.

-With going to be for the future: Knowledge is going to be taught in school.

Semantic differences with using the passive voice :

The same sentence using the passive can be interpreted two ways.

Mary had her purse snatched.

-can mean the purse snatching happened to her and was beyond her control.

-can also mean that Mary arranged for someone to snatch her purse.

Meaning difference between the active and the passive:

Active: Everyone in the room speaks two languages. (any two languages per person)

Passive Two languages are spoken by everyone in the room. (two specific languages that everybody
speaks) Chomsky 1965

Active: Few people ready many books. (There are few people in this world who read lots of books.)

Passive: Many books are read by few people. (There are many books that are read by few people. )
Lakoff 1968

Active: Moles (topos) dig tunnels. (A true statement about all moles)

Passive: Tunnels are dug by moles. (This is not true. Not all tunnels are dug my moles.)

Some more information on the Passive voice

Scientist use the passive a lot in writing since the results of the study is more important than the person
conducting the investigation. The theme is more closely related to the receiver of the action, not the
agent. (ie,. A cure was found for AIDS.)

Below ,shows which form of communication uses the least to the most use of the passive voice.
Least ___ conversation ____ fiction ___ journalism___ science _________ Most

-The passive voice is impersonal and objective. For this reason, it is common in academic writing and
newspaper reports. (News: Singer Michael Jackson was found dead in his mansion.)

-Passive forms without be. Be is often omitted in newspaper headlines. (Hundreds (are) made homeless
because of floods. = Hundreds made homeless because of floods.)

-In relative clauses using passive constructions, the relative pronoun and verb to be can be omitted. This
is known as a reduced relative clause. (The best play which has ever been written. = The best play
ever written.

Ditransitive verbs (verbs that take both a direct and indirect object): In passive voice, either the direct or
indirect object can become the subject of the sentence. ( Active voice: They gave Jane first prize. Passive
voice: Jane was given first prize. ((Jane is the indirect object. )) or First prize was given to Jane. (( First
prize is the direct object.))

-Some verbs you can use in the passive voice: believe, think, allege, assume, consider, expect, intend,
rumor, know, report, suppose, think, understand.