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 regular used in life everyday rather than passive voice. Passive voice is used
because the object 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:
1. The object in
active voice (the plants) become subject in passive voice.
2. The subject in
active voice (we) become object in passive voice. And there is change
from subject pronoun ‘we’ become
object pronoun ‘us’.
3. Verb1
(fertilize) in active voice become verb3 (fertilized) in passive voice.
4. Added tobe ‘is’ in front of verb3. Tobe that used
depend on the subject in passive voice and tenses that used.
5. 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’.
6. 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:
|
* Pattern of passive voice in tenses
1. Simple
Present Tense, use tobe: ‘am’, ‘is’ or ‘are’.
Example:
·
Active : He meets them everyday.
·
Passive : They are met by him everyday.
·
Active : She waters this plant every two days.
·
Passive : This plant is watered
by her every two days.
Example:
·
Active : He is meeting them now.
·
Passive : They are being
met by him now.
·
Active : She is watering this plant now.
·
Passive : This plant is
being watered by her now.
Example:
·
Active : He has met them.
·
Passive : They have been met by him.
·
Active : She has watered this plant 5 minutes ago.
·
Passive : This plant has been watered by her 5 minutes ago.
4. Present
Perfect Continuous Tense, use ‘has
been’ or ‘have been’ + being.
Example:
·
Active : He has been meeting them.
·
Passive : They have been
being met by him.
·
Active : She has been watering this plant.
·
Passive : This plant has
been being watered by her.
Example:
·
Active : He met them yesterday.
·
Passive : They were met by him yesterday.
·
Active : She watered this plant every two days.
·
Passive : This plant was watered by her every two days.
6. Past
Continuous Tense, use ‘tobe (was or were)’ + ‘being’.
Example:
·
Active : He was meeting them.
·
Passive : They were being
met by him.
·
Active : She was watering this plant.
·
Passive : This plant was
being watered by her.
7. Past
Perfect Tense, use ‘had been’.
Example:
·
Active : He had met them before I came.
·
Passive : They had been
met by him before I came.
·
Active : She had watered this plant for 5 minutes when I got here.
·
Passive : This plant had
been watered by her for 5 minutes when I got here.
8. Past
Perfect Continuous Tense, use ‘had
been’ + ‘being’.
Example:
·
Active : He had been meeting them.
·
Passive : They had been
being met by him.
·
Active : She had been watering this plant.
·
Passive : This plant had
been being watered by her.
9. Simple
Future Tense, use ‘be’.
Example:
·
Active : He will meet them tomorrow.
·
Passive : They will be
met by him tomorrow.
·
Active : She will water this plant this afternoon.
·
Passive : This plant will
be watered by her this afternoon.
·
Active : The farmers are going to harvest the crops next week
·
Passive : The crops are
going to be harvested by the farmers next week.
10. Future Continuous Tense, use
‘will be’ + ‘being’.
Example:
·
Active : He will be meeting them.
·
Passive : They will be being
met by him.
·
Active : She will be watering this plant.
·
Passive : This plant will
be being watered by her.
11. Future
Perfect Tense, use ‘will have been’.
Example:
·
Active : He will have met them before I get there tomorrow.
· Passive : They will have been
met by him before I get there tomorrow.
· Active : She will have watered this plant before I get here this afternoon.
·
Passive : This plant will have been watered by her before I get here this afternoon.
12. Future Perfect Continuous Tense, use ‘will have been’ +
‘being’.
Example:
·
Active : He will have been meeting them.
·
Passive : They will have
been being met by him.
·
Active : She will have been watering this plant.
·
Passive : This plant will
have been being watered by her.
13. Past Future Tense, use
‘would be’.
Example:
·
Active : He would meet them.
·
Passive : They would be
met by him.
·
Active : She would water this plant.
·
Passive : This plant would be
watered by her.
14. Past Future Continuous Tense,
use ‘would be’ + ‘being’.
Example:
·
Active : He would be meeting them.
·
Passive : They would be
being met by him.
·
Active : She would be watering this plant.
·
Passive : This plant would be being watered by her.
15. Past Future Perfect Tense, use ‘would have been’.
Example:
·
Active : He would have met them.
·
Passive : They would have
been met by him.
·
Active : She would have watered this plant.
·
Passive : This plant would
have been watered by her.
16. Past
Future Perfect Continuous Tense, use
‘would have been’ + ‘being’.
Example:
·
Active : He would be meeting them.
·
Passive : They would be
being met by him.
·
Active : She would be watering this plant.
·
Passive : This plant would
be being watered by her.
*Exceptions
to the Rule
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:
1.
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.
2. 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.
3.
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:
Ø
Baby
Sophia was delivered at 3:30 a.m. yesterday.(passive)
Ø
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.
Sources:
A.R., Nina. 2010. Hafalan Luar Kepala 16 Tenses. Yogyakarta: Pustaka Widyatama
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