jueves, 18 de marzo de 2010

Active Voice, Passive Voice

Active Voice, Passive Voice

There are two special forms for verbs called voice:

  1. Active voice
  2. Passive voice

Active Voice

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:

active

subject

verb

object

>

Cats

eat

fish.

The passive voice is less usual. In the passive voice, the subject receives the action of the verb:

passive

subject

verb

object

<

Fish

are eaten

by cats.

The object of the active verb becomes the subject of the passive verb:

subject

verb

object

active

Everybody

drinks

water.

passive

Water

is drunk

by everybody.

Passive Voice

The passive voice is less usual than the active voice. The active voice is the "normal" voice. But sometimes we need 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. Look at these examples:

subject

auxiliary verb (to be)

main verb (past participle)

Water

is

drunk

by everyone.

100 people

are

employed

by this company.

I

am

paid

in euro.

We

are

not

paid

in dollars.

Are

they

paid

in yen?

We use the passive when:

  • we want to make the active object more important
  • we do not know the active subject

subject

verb

object

give importance to active object (President Kennedy)

President Kennedy

was killed

by Lee Harvey Oswald.

active subject unknown

My wallet

has been stolen.

?

Note that we always use by to introduce the passive object (Fish are eaten by cats).

Look at this sentence:

  • He was killed with a gun.

Normally we use by to introduce the passive object. 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".

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 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

Here are some examples with most of the possible tenses:

infinitive

to be washed

simple

present

It is washed.

past

It was washed.

future

It will be washed.

conditional

It would be washed.

continuous

present

It is being washed.

past

It was being washed.

future

It will be being washed.

conditional

It would be being washed.

perfect simple

present

It has been washed.

past

It had been washed.

future

It will have been washed.

conditional

It would have been washed.

perfect continuous

present

It has been being washed.

past

It had been being washed.

future

It will have been being washed.

conditional

It would have been being washed.

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