6.1  Active Voice and Passive Voice

There are two special forms for verbs called voice:

1. Active voice

2. Passive voice

6.1.1  The active voice is the “normal” voice. This is the voice that we use most of the time. You are probably already familiar with the active voice. In the active voice, the object receives the action of the verb. Eg.

• Everybody drinks water.
  (subject – verb – object)

6.1.2  The passive voice is less usual than the active voice. The active voice is the “normal” voice. But sometimes we need the passive voice.  

    6.1.2.1  Changes from active voice to passive voice

6.1.2.1.1  The object of the active verb becomes the subject of the passive verb. Eg.

• Everybody drinks water.  (active voice)
  (subject – active verb – object)

• Water is drunk.  (passive voice)
  (subject – passive verb)

6.1.2.1.2  In the passive voice, the subject receives the action of the verb. Eg.

• Water is drunk.
  (subject – verb)

6.1.2.1.3  The transitive verb in the active voice becomes intransitive in the passive voice. Eg.

• Everybody drinks water.  (active voice)
  (subject – transitive verb – object)

• Water is drunk.  (passive voice)
  (subject – intransitive verb)
  
  In the first sentence, drinks is a transitive verb taking water as its object. The sentence can be passivized with the direct object water as the grammatical subject in the second sentence (passive voice). This shift is called promotion of the object.

6.1.2.1.4  The passive-voice construction cannot take an object. The passivized sentence could be continued with the agent. Eg.

• Water is drunk by everybody.  (passive voice)
  (subject – intransitive verb – agent)

6.1.2.2  Construction of the Passive Voice

 

The structure of the passive voice is very simple:

 

subject + auxiliary verb (be) + main verb (past participle)

 

The main verb is always in its past participle form.

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6.1.2.3  Uses of the Passive Voice

 

We use the passive voice when:

• we want to make the active object more important

• we do not know the active subject

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Note that we always use by to introduce the passive agent, as the verb in passive voice is intransitive (see 6.1.2.3) and cannot take an object (see 6.1.2.4), such as the sentence: Fish are eaten by cats.

Look at this sentence:

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• He was killed with a gun.

Normally we use by to introduce the passive agent. But the gun is not the active subject. The gun did not kill him. He was killed by somebody with a gun. In the active voice, it would be: Somebody killed him with a gun. The gun is the instrument. Somebody is the “agent” or “doer.”

 

6.1.2.4  Conjugation for the Passive Voice

 

We can form the passive in any tense. In fact, conjugation of verbs in the passive tense is rather easy, as the main verb is always in past participle form and the help / auxiliary verb is always be. To form the required tense, we conjugate the auxiliary verb. So, for example:

• present simple: It is made

• present continuous: It is being made

• present perfect: It has been made

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