Lecture Notes:  The Passive

Besides tenses, you must consider the voice of the sentence when using verbs.  There are two kinds of voices in the English language: the active voice and the passive voice.

The Active Voice
In the active voice, the subject is the doer, or the agent, of the verb.  The following sentences are in the active voice.

  1. Brittany walks home everyday.
  2. The flowers are growing well in our back yard.
  3. Video games will replace many active sports among children.
In (1), the subject is 'Brittany' and the verb is 'walks'.  Who walks home everyday?  Brittany, the subject of the sentence.  In (2), 'flowers' is the subject and 'are growing' is the verb.  What is growing? Flowers, the subject.  In (3), the subject is 'video games' and the verb is 'will replace'.  What will replace many active sports?  Again, the subject, 'video games'.

When the subject is the agent (doer) of the verb, then the sentence is considered to be in the active voice.

The Passive Voice
In contrast, when the subject is NOT the agent of the verb, then the sentence is considered to be in the passive voice.  For example:

  1. The class was taught by Mr. Johnson.
  2. The chicken was baked in the oven.
  3. The museum was built in 1876.
In (1), the subject is 'class' and the verb is 'was taught'.  Who did the verb 'taught'?  Not the subject, 'the class' but Mr. Johnson, the object of the sentence.  In (2), the subject is 'the chicken' and the verb is 'was baked'.  Who did the baking?  We don't know, but it was not the subject, the chicken.  The chicken did not do anything; it just sat there in the oven!  In (3), the subject is 'the museum' and the verb is 'was built'.  Who did the building?  Again, it wasn't the subject, 'the museum' because it cannot build itself.  We do not know who did it, but we know it was not the subject.  Therefore, all these sentences are considered to be in the passive voice.

It is important to note that only transitive verbs, not intransitive, can be in the passive voice.  Transitive verbs are those that are followed by an object, whereas intransitive verbs cannot be followed by an object.  Read the following sentences:

  1. Mr. Johnson taught the class.
  2. Belinda baked the chicken.
  3. I-Wen Pei designed the museum.
The verbs in all of the sentences above are transitive because they are followed by an object:  'the class', 'the chicken' and 'the museum', respectively.  However, there are many verbs that cannot take an object:
  1. The accident happened this morning.
  2. My brother will be appearing on a game show.
In (1), what happened? The accident, the subject?  Did the accident happen something?  No, because it does not make sense.  'this morning' is only an adverb, describing when it happened, but it is not an object.  Similarly, in (2) who will do the verb 'appear'? 'My brother' the subject.  Can the brother appear anything?  No, because again, it does not make any sense.  There just are verbs that do not take an object, and these objects cannot be in the passive voice.  In other words, you may not say:
  1. The accident was happened this morning.
  2. My brother will be appeared on a game show.
This is why having the correct form of the form is very important.  Just by adding the auxiliary 'was' to the first sentence, you have changed the meaning of the sentence to "Something happened the accident this morning", which does not make sense.  In the same way in (2), by changing the verb to 'appeared', you have now made the sentence to mean "Someone will be appearing my brother", which is a nonsense.

The Form of the Passive
Tense                                     Form                                                       Example
Simple Present                        am/is/are + past participle                          The class is taught by Mr. Johnson.
Present Progressive                 am/is/are + being + past participle              The class is being taught by Mr. Johnson.
Present Perfect                        has/have + been + past participle               The class has been taught by Mr. Johnson.
Simple Past                             was/were + past participle                         The class was taught by Mr. Johnson.
Past Progressive                      was/were + being + past participle             The class was being taught by Mr. Johnson.
Past Perfect                             had been + past participle                          The class had been taught by Mr. Johnson.
Simple Future                          will be + past participle                              The class will be taught by Mr. Johnson.
                                                            OR
                                               am/is/are going to be +past participle         The class is going to be taught by Mr. Johnson.
Future Perfect                          will have been + past participle                 The class will have been taught by Mr. Johnson.
 

The By-Phrase
When a sentence is in the passive voice, it may or may not identify the agent of the verb.  When it does specify the agent, the preposition by is used.  Read the following sentences:

  1. The book was written by Ernest Hemingway.
  2. The research will be conducted by a group of Stanford math professors.
  3. Last week, Seattle was hit by a powerful earthquake.
The sentences above can be written in the active voice as well:
  1. Ernest Hemingway wrote the book.
  2. A group of Stanford math professors will conduct the research.
  3. Last week, a powerful earthquake hit Seattle.
Often times, however, the agent is not identified either because it is unknown or because it is not important.  The agent is not the focus of the topic, so it is omitted.  See examples on p. 211.  In (a), it is of little importance to know who grows the rice, because the focus of the sentence is the 'rice', not the rice grower.  Similarly in (b) and (c), the focus of the sentence is the 'house', not the builder, and 'the olive oil', not the maker of the oil, respectively, so the agent is not mentioned.

Active or Passive?
If the passive has the same meaning as the active, then the question is, "When should the passive be used?"  It depends on the focus of the discourse.  In English, whatever is in the subject position usually receives focus, and so the topic of the discourse, whether it is written or spoken, will be in the subject position.  For example, if you were asked to write about President George W. Bush, you would want to focus on him - his character, his personality, his policies, his activities - so you would want to write most of your sentences with President Bush in the subject position and the verbs in the active voice.  On the other hand, if you were asked to write about his tax cut plan, you would want to put the plan in the subject position since it is the focus of your writing, but put the verbs in the passive voice because the plan really cannot 'do' anything.  It is done by someone else, whether it be President Bush or Congress, so you might say something like "The tax cut plan was proposed by President Bush, and after much deliberation, it was passed by Congress."