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When Passive Is Better than
Active |
This Everyday Grammar is all about the passive voice.
The passive is a verb form in which the subject receives
the action of the verb. For example, "I was born on a
Saturday."
Most sentences in English follow the subject-verb-object
pattern known as the active voice. For example, "I love
you." In this example the subject is "I," the verb is
"love" and the object is "you." The subject performs the
action of the verb.
But sometimes the subject is acted upon, or receives the
action of the verb. This is called the passive voice.
Imagine that someone stole your wallet, but you do not
know who did it. You could say, "My wallet was stolen."
In this passive sentence, "my wallet" is the subject,
"was stolen" is the verb. There is no direct object --
the wallet did not steal itself. The speaker does not
know who stole the wallet.
To form the passive, use a form of the verb "be"
followed by a past participle verb form. You can form
the passive in several verb tenses, but the simple
present and simple past are the most common.
Only transitive verbs can be passive. Intransitive
verbs, or verbs that cannot take a direct object, cannot
be passive. You cannot say "I was arrived by train"
because the intransitive verb arrive cannot be followed
by an object.
Most of the time, users should avoid the passive voice.
The passive voice can make the speaker or writer seem
indirect and weak. Which would you rather hear: "I love
you" (active voice) or "You are loved by me" (passive
voice)?
But there are several situations when you should use the
passive.
The most common reason to use the passive is when the
actor is unknown or unimportant. For example, "My visa
was processed," and "My shoes were made in India" and
"The car was imported from Germany." In these examples,
it is not necessary to know exactly who performed the
action.
Sometimes speakers use the passive even when they know
the person who did the action. In this case, use the
word by followed by the actor.
For example, "Great Expectations was written by Charles
Dickens." You could also use the active voice: "Charles
Dickens wrote Great Expectations." Both are correct. The
passive voice emphasizes the book; the active voice
emphasizes the writer.
In informal speech, the verb "be" can be replaced with
the verb "get." For example, instead of saying "I was
hit by a car," you can say, "I got hit by a car." Listen
to this famous song by the Eurythmics. You will hear two
active and two passive sentences.
Some of them want to use you
Some of them want to get used by you
Some of them want to abuse you
Some of them want to be abused
Notice how singer Annie Lennox used the passive with
both "get" and "be."
Another reason to use the passive is to avoid naming the
person who performed an action. This is common in
politics and law.
At times, powerful people want to admit to a mistake
without blaming specific people. In this case, they
often use the passive phrase "mistakes were made."
Listen to a TV interview with President Obama. A
reporter asked the president about a report of abuses by
the Central Intelligence Agency. Here is how President
Obama replied:
"Any fair-minded person looking at this would say that
some terrible mistakes were made."
And here is President George W. Bush using the same
phrase. A reporter asked him about the firing of some
prosecutors.
"And he's right, mistakes were made. And I’m frankly not
happy about them."
You might hear the passive voice in a courtroom. For
legal reasons, sometimes lawyers have to use the passive
voice to avoid directly blaming a suspect for a crime.
Listen to this courtroom dialog from a popular TV drama
The Good Wife. A prosecutor is accusing a person of
killing a man named Wagner.
Prosecutor: And how did he kill Wagner?
Defense attorney: Objection!
Prosecutor: Withdrawn. How was Wagner killed?
Did you notice how the prosecutor switched his question
from the active to the passive voice? Listen one more
time.
Prosecutor: And how did he kill Wagner?
Defense attorney: Objection!
Prosecutor: Withdrawn. How was Wagner killed?
At the beginning of the clip, the prosecutor asked, "How
did he kill Wagner?" The defense attorney objected to
the question. The prosecutor rephrased the question in
the passive voice to avoid blaming the suspect. He
asked, "How was Wagner killed?"
Overusing the passive voice is major problem in student
writing, even for native speakers. Try to keep your
passive sentences under 10 percent of your total. Try
converting some of your long sentences into simple
subject-verb-object sentences.
There is much more to learn about the passive, including
the stative passive and participle adjectives. We'll
address those topics in a future episode of Everyday
Grammar. Until then, sweet dreams!
Sweet dreams are made of this
Who would admire to disagree?
I’ve traveled the world and the seven seas
Everybody's looking for something…
I'm Jonathan Evans.
And I’m Ashley Thompson. |
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