Passive Voice
Being passive means usually that somebody watches while others do all the work. This is fairly similar when it comes to grammar.
To explain the passive voice, let's first understand its partner, the active voice.
Remember from the previous sections, which you might or might not have read, that a sentence consists of at least a subject and a verb. The subject is the person, object or concept who/which performed the action in the sentence and was therefore also called the actor. The verb shows what is happening in the sentence.
Generally, there is also somebody or something which receives the action and is called the object.
In the sentence, "Bertha kisses the frog", Bertha is the actor, or actress in this case, who does all the kissing. Now, kissing without somebody to kiss is rather boring, so Bertha kisses the frog who might or might not enjoy being acted on.
Then it looks like this:
| Subject | Verb | Object |
|---|---|---|
| Bertha | kisses | the frog. |
| The frog | finds | the golden ball. |
| I | don't kiss | frogs. |
Sometimes the person, object etc. who performs the action is not as important as the object that receives the action, which brings us to the passive voice.
In that case, the subject and object trade places. Then it looks like this:
| Object | Verb | Subject |
|---|---|---|
| The frog | is kissed | by Bertha. |
| The golden ball | is found | by the frog. |
| The frog | is not kissed | by me. |
You have to decide whether to use the active or the passive voice, depending on which part of the sentence you want to emphasise.
It can look like this:
Bertha kisses the frog. (active voice)
or:
The frog is kissed by Bertha. (passive voice)
Especially in academic or scientific writing, the passive voice is often used to focus on the results rather than on the scientists etc. who have done all the work.
Instead of writing:
Mrs. Flog and Mr. Bahl have found proof that frogs don't really turn into princes. (active)
you could write:
Proof has been found by Mrs. Flog and Mr. Bahl that frogs don't really turn into princes. (passive)
In fact, usually the people who have done all the work become so unimportant that they get completely left out of the sentence.
Then it looks like this:
Proof has been found that frogs don't really turn into princes.
As you might have noticed by now, not only do the subject and object trade places and the subject is often made redundant, but the verb form also changes.
Native speakers will do this automatically, while second language learners have to learn the changed verb forms in the different tenses. A list of the changed verb forms has been included for your enjoyment.
| Present tense | |
|---|---|
| Active Voice: | Berta kisses the frog. |
| Passive Voice: | The frog has been kissed by Berta. |
| Present Perfect | |
| Active Voice: | Berta has kissed the frog. |
| Passive Voice: | The frog has been kissed by Berta. |
| Past Tense | |
| Active Voice: | Berta kissed the frog. |
| Passive Voice: | The frog has been kissed by Berta. |
| Past Perfect | |
| Active Voice: | Berta had kissed the frog. |
| Passive Voice: | The frog had been kissed by Berta. |
| Future | |
| Active Voice: | Berta will kiss the frog. |
| Passive Voice: | The frog will be kissed by Berta. |
| Future Perfect | |
| Active Voice: | Berta will have kissed the frog. |
| Passive Voice: | The frog will have been kissed by Berta. |
The passive voice is a useful tool in academic writing even though your grammar checker might try to tell you it is inaccurate to use it. This is not actually true in Australia .
The only reason for the decline in popularity of the passive voice is that it has been overused and sometimes downright abused in the past. Some of the articles you have had to read might have been proof of that.
However, a lot of lecturers don't like you to use the personal pronoun "I" in your writing (unless they give you special permission), so you more or less have to use the passive voice.
Instead of writing:
- I will discuss the current trends in transmutation of frogs into princes. (active)
you could write:
- In this essay the current trends in transmutation of frogs into princes will be discussed. (passive)
Or another example:
- I will show that it is theoretically possible to change amphibians into aristocrats. (active)
- It will be shown by me that it is theoretically possible to change amphibians into aristocrats. (passive)
- However, in this case it might be politically advisable to leave out the "by me". It definitely should not appear in academic writing.