The Passive Voice

The Passive Voice

An active sentence such as I drank two cups of coffee places the subject first, that is, the person or thing performing the verb, then the verb, and finally the object, the person or thing affected by the action.

In this example the subject is 'I', the verb is 'drank' and the object is 'two cups of coffee'.

Sentences need not be constructed in this way. The object may need to come first, or the agent may be one the speaker prefers to leave unstated. The reasons are various and are set out below. In such cases the passive is used, and it places the object first:

• Two cups of coffee were drunk (we can add 'by me' if we want, but it isn't necessary).

Forming the passive in English

The passive is formed by putting the verb 'to be' into the required tense and adding the past participle. The past participle of a regular verb is formed by adding '-ed' to the infinitive, so play becomes played.

Verbs with two objects

Verbs taking two objects allow two different active sentences, and therefore two different passive sentences as well:

Give

• Active: He gave me the book / He gave the book to me.

Either object may become the subject of the passive sentence.

• Passive: I was given the book (by him)/ The book was given to me (by him).

Verbs of the same type include ask, offer, teach, tell, lend, promise, sell and throw.

The passive in subordinate clauses

The passive can be formed in a subordinate clause containing a subject and a finite verb. The construction is no different from the ordinary passive.

• Active: I thought that Clara had kissed Daniel.
• Passive: I thought that Daniel had been kissed by Clara.

• Active: He knew that people had built the church in 1915.
• Passive: He knew that the church had been built in 1915.

A passive gerund or a passive infinitive may also be used wherever an ordinary gerund or infinitive would stand.

• The child loves being cuddled.
• She would like to be promoted.

Uses of the passive voice

1. To shift the focus of the sentence:

• The Mona Lisa was painted by Leonardo Da Vinci. (The sentence is concerned with the painting rather than the artist.)

2. When the agent is unknown, unimportant, self-evident, or simply people in general:

• He was arrested (obvious agent, the police).
• My bike has been stolen (unknown agent).
• The road is being repaired (unimportant agent).
• The form can be obtained from the post office (people in general).

3. In factual or scientific writing:

• The chemical is placed in a test tube and the data entered into the computer.

4. In formal writing, in place of 'someone', 'people' or 'they', which belong to speech and informal writing:

• The brochure will be finished next month.

5. To place new information at the end of the sentence, which improves the style:

• Three books are used regularly in the class. The books were written by Dr. Nakamura. ('Dr. Nakamura wrote the books' reads clumsily here.)

6. When the subject would otherwise be very long:

• I was surprised by how well the students did in the test. (More natural than 'how well the students did in the test surprised me'.)