Unit 11 passive voice

1. Forms of the Passive.

1. We form the passive using be in an appropriate tense + past participle.

2. In spoken English we sometimes use get instead of be in the passive.

They got told off for making so much noise.

Get meaning ‘become’ is also common with a particular small group of past participles:

• get dressed, get married, get used to, get stuck, get lost, get caught, get burnt, get involved

The meaning of these phrases can be active:

I got dressed as quickly as I could.

We can use some of these phrases with an object:

Don’t get your family involved in the business.

2. Meaning and use.

In English the person or thing you want to talk about is usually put first as the subject of the clause. So, when you want to talk about someone or something that is the performer of an action (the agent), you make them the subject of the verb and you use an active form of the verb. The other person or thing is made the object of the verb.

However, you may want to focus on the person or thing affected by an action, which would be the object of an active form of the verb. In that case, you make the person or thing the subject of a passive form of the verb.

The dog’s eaten our dinner.

Our dinner’s been eaten by the dog.

Clauses which contain an active form of a verb are in the active voice, and clauses with a passive form of a verb are in the passive voice.

The passive voice is very important in English. Probably quite 90% of the passive sentences spoken or written are of the type replacing the indefinite pronoun or reflexives in other languages. (compare: French "on", German "man" and the use of reflexive verbs in Slavonic languages).

Someone has stolen my books.

We prefer: My books have been stolen.

The choice between active and passive constructions often depends on what has already been said, or on what the listener already knows. We usually like to start sentences with what is already known and to put ‘new’ information later in the sentences.

John’s just written a play.

This play was probably written by Marlowe.

We choose between active and passive because of the topic we are talking about, especially when reporting information. An English newspaper, assuming its readers are interested in the England football team, makes the England team the topic. It is likely to report: ‘England have been beaten by Germany in a penalty shootout.’ A German newspaper, more interested in their own national team, is likely to report: ‘Germany has beaten England in a penalty shootout.’

Passive structures are preferred for one of these reasons:

1. because the agent is unknown

He’s almost certainly been murdered.

2. because it is obvious or not important who or what the agent is

Such items should be carefully packed in tea chests.

She found that she wasn’t being paid the same wages as him.

3. because the agent has already been mentioned

His pictures of dogs were executed with tremendous humour.

4. because people in general are agents

Both of these books can be obtained from the public library.

5. because you want to conceal the agent’s identity or to distance yourself from your own actions

The original has been destroyed.

She had been given instructions to moderate her tone.

6. because the agent is a long phrase

Helen was surprised by all the messages of sympathy that she received.

7. avoiding you in orders and rules

You must give in your applications before the end of the week.

becomes: All applications must be given in before the end of the week.

8. in factual writing when the focus is usually on events, achievements, etc. rather than agents

Vaccination had been pioneered two hundred years ago.