Annisa Hani Utami's Blog: Mei 2015

INTRODUCTION

Passive voice verbs are used in writing much more often than in speech, and they are used in some types of writing much more often than in others. Passives are used more in journalism (newspapers, magazines) than in fiction (novels, stories), but most journalists and fiction writers use far more active than passive sentences. However, passives are very common in all types of scientific and technical writing. Scientific articles often contain more passive than active sentences. You should not use passive voice verbs unless you have a good reason.

The passive of an active tense is formed by putting the verb to be into the same tense as the active verb and adding the past participle of the active verb. The subject of the active verb becomes the ‘agent’ of the passive verb. The agent is very often not mentioned. When it is mentioned it is preceded by by and placed at the end of the clause.

Active: My grandfather planted this tree.

Passive: This tree was planted by my grandfather.

The basic formula as above passive voice will always adjust to the tenses used.

The formula Passive Voice In 16 tenses

Here is the formula of passive voice in 16 tenses complete sentences origin accompanied by active voice

No	Tenses	Active Voice	Passive Voice
1	Present Simple Tense	S + V1 + O	S + to be (am, are, is) + V3 + by + O
		Many people speak English	English is spoken by many people
2	Present Continuous Tense	S + to be (am, are, is) + V1-ing + O	S + to be (am, are, is) + being + V3 + by + O
		Many people are speaking English	English is being spoken by many people
3	Present Perfect Tense	S + to be (am, are, is) + being + V3 + by + O	S + have/has + been + V3 + by + O
		Many people have spoken English	English has been spoken by many people
4	Present Perfect Continuous Tense	S + have/has + been + V1-ing + O	S + have/has + been + being + V3 + by + O
		Many people have been speaking English	English has been being spoken by many people
5	Past Simple Tense	S + V2 + O	S + to be (was, were) + V3 + by + O
		Many people spoke English	English was spoken by many people
6	Past Continuous Tense	S + to be (was, were) + V1-ing + O	S + to be (was, were) + being + V3 + by + O
		Many people were speaking English	English was being spoken by many people
7	Past Perfect Tense	S + had not + V3 + O	S + had + been + V3 + by + O
		Many people had spoken English	English had been spoken by many people
8	Past Perfect Continuous Tense	S + had + been + V1-ing + O	S + had + been + being + V3 + by + O
		Many people had been speaking English	English had been being spoken by many people
9	Future Simple Tense	S + will not + V1 + O	S + will be + V3 + by + O
		Many people will speak English	English will be spoken by many people
10	Future Continuous Tense	S + will + be + V1-ing + O	S + will + be + being + V3 + by + O
		Many people will be speaking English	English will be being spoken by many people
11	Future Perfect Tense	S + will + have + V3 + O	S + will + have + been + V3 + by + O
		Many people will have spoken English	English will have been spoken by many people
12	Future Perfect Continuous Tense	S + will + have + been + V1-ing + O	S + will + have + been + V1-ing + O
		Many people will have been speaking English	English will have been being spoken by Many people
13	Past Future Simple Tense	S + would + V1 + O	S + would + be + V3 + by + O
		Many people would speak English	English would be spoken by many people
14	Past Future Continuous Tense	S + would + be + V1-ing + O	S + would + be + being + V3 + by + O
		Many people would be speaking English	English would be being spoken by many people
15	Past Future Perfect Tense	S + would + have + V3 + O	S + would + have + been + V3 + by + O
		Many people would have spoken English	English would have been spoken by many people
16	Past Future Perfect Continuous Tense	S + would + have + been + V1-ing + O	S + would + have + been +being + V3 + by + O
		Many people would have been speaking English	English would have been being spoken by many people

The formula Passive Voice
The formula passive voice is as follows below.

Short answers

To make short answers:

· we use the verb to be (am/is/are/was/were) for Present Simple, Past Simple, Present Continuous, Past Continuous and Going To questions.

· we use the verb have (have/has/had) for Present Perfect and Past Perfect questions.

· we use will for Future Simple questions.

USE

The Passive is used:

1. when the agent (=the person who does the action) is unknown, unimportant or obvious from the context.

Jane was shot. (We don’t know who shot her.)

This church was built in 1815. (Unimportant agent)

He has been arrested. (Obviously by the police)

2. to make more polite or formal statements.

The car hasn’t been cleaned. (more polite)

(You haven’t cleaned the car. – less polite)

3. when the action is more important than the agent, as in processes, instructions, events, reports, headlines, new items, and advertisements.

30 people were killed in the earthquake.

4. to put emphasis on the agent.

The new library will be opened by the Queen.

AGENT

To say who did the action that we are talking about, ie. to refer to the agent, we use the preposition by and the name (by Peter) , noun (by the teacher) or pronoun (by him) at the end of the sentence.

We usually only refer to the agent when it gives us some important information which otherwise would be missing from the sentence.

Our house was designed by a famous architect.

We don’t mention the agent:

1. if we don’t know who has done what we are talking about.

Our car was stolen last night. (We don’t know who stole it)

2. if we are not interested in who has done what we are talking about or it is not important to mention it.

He has been taken to hospital. (What we are interested in is the fact that he has been taken to hospital and not who has taken him.)

3. if it is easy to understand who did something without it being mentioned.

The murderer was arrested last night. (It is not necessary to mention that he has been arrested by the police because it is self-evident.)

4. if the subject of the active voice sentence is something like somebody, people, they, you, etc.

Someone broke the window. → The window was broken.

Here are examples of sentences written in both the active voice and the passive voice, with the active voice sentence appearing first:

Harry ate six shrimp at dinner. (active)

At dinner, six shrimp were eaten by Harry. (passive)

Beautiful giraffes roam the savannah. (active)

The savannah is roamed by beautiful giraffes. (passive)

Sue changed the flat tire. (active)

The flat tire was changed by Sue. (passive)

These different sentences written in both active voice and passive voice illustrate the differences.

10 questions about the active sentence to passive voice

1. Potatoes, black beans and chesnuts … raw.

a. were rarely consumed

b. are rarely consumed

2. Fio … by one of the waitress now.

a. is being served

b. is served

3. The new member enjoys … into our support group.

a. being received

be received

4. You … if you meet the minimum requirements for this job.

a. will be contacted

b. would be contacted

5. Nothing … except his credit card.

has been stolen
has stolen

6. The buildings … of marble and granite.

a. was made

b. were made

7. A negative anonymous letter … on my car this morning.

is left
was left

8 …. with all my stories?

did you bored

b. were you bored

9. The 1945 Constitution of the Republic of Indonesia … by the Committee for Examination of Indonesian Independence and the Preparatory Committee for Indonesian Independence.

a. were written

b. was written

10. I want to know why a woman prefers … by a man.

a. to be managed

b. to managed

10 questions about the passive voice to active sentence