Active/Passive Voice

(prepared by Silvia Rivero)

Exercise #1: Active/Passive Voice - Yes / No Exercise
Exercise #2: Transform Active Voice into Passive Voice

The passive voice is a form of sentence structure that subordinates the subject of the sentence--the source of action or agency--and in some cases suppresses mention of the subject-actor completely. You would use the passive voice when you do not want the reader's attention to be focused on the subject, when you prefer the subject's agency in the action not to be seen, or when you want the action to be highlighted but it is not relevant to mention who performed it. For example, assume you were a lawyer representing a defendant in a criminal case who then became involved in an incident with a congressman. You might choose to use the passive voice--and thus to assign your client a less prominent position in the following sentence--to de-emphasize his agency.

Compare:
The defendant Mr. Tucker assaulted the congressman. (Active Voice)
The congressman was assaulted (by the defendant Mr. Tucker). (Passive Voice)

Many writers whose first language is English tend to use the passive voice excessively and without any specific purpose in their texts. Their misconception is that, by using the passive voice, they give a more "serious" appearance to the text. However, excessive use of the passive voice in a text produces an undesirable effect: the prose becomes too heavy, difficult to read, and unnecessarily complicated. Avoid that for the sake of clarity! On the other hand, sometimes multilingual writers do not use the passive voice at all because they find it a difficult grammar structure to use and, in consequence, do not benefit from the rhetorical applications that the passive voice makes possible. You should use the passive voice consciously and strategically, as a rhetorical tool, when appropriate to achieve a desired persuasive effect, or to vary sentence structure in a longer passage.

Once you've decided that it is appropriate to use the passive voice, follow these steps to convert an active sentence into a passive sentence form:

1. Identify the subject, the object, and the verb of the sentence:

e.g., John studies French.

John (subject)
French (direct object)
studies (verb)

If there is no direct object in the sentence, then you cannot convert the sentence into a passive form.

e.g., John sings. (No direct object)
John sings to me. (No direct object; to me: indirect object)

But: John sings a song to me.

What? A song (direct object)

John	bought	a new laptop.
Subject	Verb	Direct Object

2. Put the direct object into the subject position and the subject into the subordinated agent's position (preceded by the particle by) of the new (passive) sentence, as shown below:

John bought a new laptop.

A new laptop __________ John.

Note: When the direct object in the active sentence is a pronoun, you will need to shift it into its subject version in the passive sentence. For example, note how, in the following active sentence, the pronoun "him," which is the direct object of the sentence, shifts to "he" when it becomes the subject of the passive version of the same sentence.

John punished him.
(direct object)

He was punished by John.
(subject)

3. Put the main verb into the passive form:

How to do that? Ask yourself the following questions:

a. What's the past participle of this verb?

Present Tense		Past Participle
sing		sung
drive		driven
buy		bought
to be (is, are, were, was)		been

Careful! Remember the past participle sometimes coincides with the simple past of a verb, especially regular verbs (e.g., buy/bought, park/parked), but not in all cases.

Note: Some of the passive constructions that follow may strike you as awkward or ungraceful. These sentences merely provide examples of how to convert various verbs from an active to a passive form, and are not necessarily suggestions of when to use the passive voice.

So, e.g.:

John	bought		a new laptop.

A new laptop.	_____	bought	by John.
		Past Participle

Peter	sings		beautiful songs	all the time.

Beautiful songs	_____	sung	by Peter.
		Past Participle

Andy	is driving		a new sports car	at high speed.

A new sports car	_____	driven	by Andy.
		Past Participle

Mr. Brown	has brought		a case	to my attention.

A case	_____	brought	to my attention	by Mr. Brown.
		Past Participle

John	has requested		special authorization.

Special authorization	_____	requested	by John.
		Past Participle

b. What's the tense of the verb in the active sentence? Then write in the verb TO BE in that same tense, right before the past participle you've just written in.

So, e.g.:

sing (Simple Present)		is, are (Verb TO BE in Simple Present);
drove (Simple Past)		was, were (Verb TO BE in Simple Past);
has driven (Present Perfect)		has been (Verb TO BE in Present Perfect);
is buying (Present Progressive)		is being (Verb TO BE in Present Progressive);
had been (Past Perfect)		had been (Verb TO BE in Past Perfect);

So, e.g.:

John

bought

a new laptop.

Verb Tense? Simple Past
Simple Past of Verb TO BE: was, were

A new laptop	was	bought	by John.
		Past Participle

Peter

sings

beautiful songs

all the time.

Verb Tense? Simple Present
Simple Present of Verb TO BE: is, are, am

Beautiful songs	are	sung	by Peter.
		Past Participle

Andy

is driving

a new sports car

at high speed.

Verb Tense? Present Progressive
Present Progressive of Verb TO BE: is being, are being, am being

A new sports car	is being	driven	by Andy.
		Past Participle

Mr. Brown

has brought

the case to my attention.

Verb Tense? Present Perfect
Present Perfect of Verb TO BE: has been, have been

The case	has been	brought	to my attention	by Mr. Brown.
		Past Participle

John

had requested

special authorization.

Verb Tense? Past Perfect
Past Perfect of Verb TO BE: had been

Special authorization	had been	requested	by John.
		Past Participle

c. Does the verb TO BE in the passive form of the verb agree in person and number with the subject of the passive sentence? This question applies only to the following cases: is/are/am, was/were or have/has. For example:

Active:	The manager assigned this task to the new employee.
Passive:	This task [was (right) / were (wrong!)] assigned to the new employee (by the manager).

Explanation:

The verb TO BE takes two forms in the simple past: WAS and WERE. However, the verb needs to agree with the subject in person and number. This task can be substituted by IT (the 3rd person singular pronoun). WAS (and not WERE) is the 3rd person singular form of the verb. So,

Passive:

The task was assigned to the new employee (by the manager).

Now it's time for you to practice! Please select one of the following two exercises by clicking on the blue link. Be sure to read the instructions for each exercise carefully.

Exercise #1: Active/Passive Voice - Yes / No Exercise
Exercise #2: Transform Active Voice into Passive Voice