PASSIVE VOICE
The
“Passive Voice” is a grammatical
construction in which the subject of a sentence or clause denotes the recipient
of the action rather than the performer. Active voice is a more regularused in
life everyday rather than passivevoice. Passive voice is used because theobject
of active voice is more important rather than the subject. Many language critics
and language-usage manuals discourage use of the passive voice. In English this
advice is not usually found in older guides, emerging only in the first half of
the twentieth century.
Example:
-
Active : we fertilize the plants every 3 months
-
Passive : the plants is fertilized by us every 3 months
According to the example above, we
can see that:
- The object in active voice (the plants) become subject in passive voice.
- The subject in active voice (we) become object in passive voice. And there is change from subject pronoun ‘we’ become object pronoun ‘us’ .
- Verb1 (fertilize) in active voice become verb3 (fertilized) in passive voice.
- Added tobe ‘is’ in front of verb3. Tobe that used depend on the subject in passive voice and tenses that used.
- Added ‘by’ after verb3. but, if the object in passive voice assumed unimportant or not known, so the object is usually not used and so is ‘by’ .
- Special for progressive sentences (all continuous tenses) necessary add ‘being’ in front of verb3, if not added “being”, the tenses will change, not progressive/continuous anymore.
According
to the six above, the pattern of passive voice is:
Subject + be + Verb3 + by + Object +
Modifier
The passive
voice in each tense :
|
Tense
|
Auxiliary verb + sample V3 (past
participle)
|
Examples
|
|
Present
simple
|
am,
is , are + made
|
Wine
is made from grapes.
Many
cars are made in Japan.
|
|
Present
progressive
|
am,
is , are + being + sent
|
The
document is being sent right now.
I
am being sent to work in the London office.
|
|
Past
simple
|
was,
were + invited
|
John
was invited to speak at the
conference.
We
were invited to Daniel and
Mary’s
wedding.
|
|
Past
progressive
|
was,
were + being +
washed
|
The
dog was being washed
when
I got home.
Their
cars were being washed
while
they were in the mall
shopping.
|
|
Future
(will)
|
will
be + signed
|
The
contract will be signed tomorrow.
The
documents will all be signed by next week.
|
|
Future
(going to)
|
am,
is , are + going to be + built
|
A
bridge is going to be built within the next two years.
New
houses are going to be built in our neighborhood.
|
|
Present
perfect
|
has,
have + been + sold
|
That
start-up has been sold for $5 million.
The
rights to his book have been sold for $250,000.
|
|
Past
perfect
|
had
+ been + hired
|
The
new manager had been hired before John left the company.
All
the employees had hired before the store opened.
|
|
Future
perfect
|
will
+ have been + finished
|
The
car will have been loaded by the time he gets home.
The
crates will have been loaded by then.
|
|
Modals
: can/could
|
can,
could + be + issued
|
A
passport can only be issued at the embassy.
He
said the documents could be issued within the week.
|
|
Modal
: have to
|
have
to, has to, had to + be + arranged
|
A
babysitter has to be arranged for this evening.
Joan’s
travel plans have to be arranged by December.
|
|
Modal
: must
|
must
+ be + stopped
|
Criminals
must be stopped
before
they commit crimes.
|
Not every passive verb
can or should be made active. Sometimes you simply don’t know who or what
performed an action, or you deliberately want to obscure who performed an
action. Sometimes you want the focus of a sentence to be the recipient, such as
when who did an action is unimportant or less important than to whom it was
done. A passive verb puts the recipient right up front in the sentence where it
gets attention:
Examples
:
- Ten people were killed in the plane crash.
- Tracy was featured on the TV nightly news.
- George was born on April 27th.
The passive is also
customary in many expressions where a writer or speaker may choose to be vague
about assigning responsibility:
Examples
:
- Flight 107 has been cancelled.
- Mistakes were made.
- The check was lost in the mail.
So when is it OK to use the passive?
Sometimes
the passive voice is the best choice. Here are a few instances when the passive
voice is quite useful:
- To emphasize an object.Take a look at this example: 100 votes are required to pass the bill.This passive sentence emphasizes the number of votes required. An active version of the sentence ("The bill requires 100 votes to pass") would put the emphasis on the bill, which may be less dramatic.
- To de-emphasize an unknown subject.Consider this example: Over 120 different contaminants have been dumped into the river.If you don't know who the subject is - in this case, if you don't actually know who dumped all of those contaminants in the river - then you may need to write in the passive.
- If your readers don't need to know who's responsible for the action.Here's where your choice can be difficult; some instances are less clear than others. Try to put yourself in your reader's position to anticipate how he/she will react to the way you have phrased your thoughts.Here are two examples:
- Baby Sophia was delivered at 3:30 a.m. yesterday. (passive)
- Dr. Susan Jones delivered baby Sophia at 3:30 a.m. yesterday. (active)The first sentence might be more appropriate in a birth announcement sent to family and friends—they are not likely to know Dr. Jones and are much more interested in the "object"(the baby) than in the actor (the doctor). A hospital report of yesterday's events might be more likely to focus on Dr. Jones' role.
Source
:
http://biarmiakbar.blogspot.co.id/2013/10/makalah-bahasa-inggris-passive-voice.html?m=1
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