Passive Voice
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The most important information in a sentence usually comes first, and English sentences are built following the SVO pattern.
Here we are interested in who scored the goal. And when the subject performs the action denoted by the verb we talk about sentences in the active voice.
When we want to change the order of the information in a sentence we use the passive voice. This puts the object at the front.
active
passive
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Usage
Overall the active voice is more widely used than the passive.
The passive voice is used in writing much more often than in speech. It can be found in newspapers and magazines or articles, and it is very common in scientific and technical writing.
The passive is particularly useful in two situations:
1 - when it is more important to draw our attention to the person or thing acted upon:
Here we are not really interested in who was reading the verdict.
2 - when the doer in the situation is not important or unknown.
Formation
Here is how to build the two voices:
active
passive
There are three steps to making a passive sentence:
1 - make the object of the active sentence (the cake), the subject of the passive sentence:
active
passive
2 - make the verb passive; we do this by using be and the past participle:
active
passive
3 - we can leave it like that or make the subject of active sentence (Elsa) the object of the passive sentence - we introduce it with by:
active
passive
The Doer
When we turn an active sentence into a passive one the subject in the active sentence becomes the agent (or doer) in the passive sentence. The agent (or doer) is always introduced by by.
Sometimes though it is not necessary to include the agent (or doer) and the by... part of the passive can be omitted altogether. This can happen:
- if we do not know who the doer is:
By someone, I don't know who.
- if we do not want to say who the doer is:
I know who broke the window (it was me) but I don't want to admit it!
- if it is not important to know who the doer is, or if it is obvious:
It is irrelevant who painted it. The important thing is that it was painted!
It is implied that the locals mined this silvery-gray metallic element well before the Romans arrived.
Other Passives
Sometimes you can make two different passive sentences if the original sentence has two objects.
active
passive1
passive2
N.B. When there are two objects (thing & person) we usually make the person the subject of the passive sentence (i.e. the last example).
Also, if the active sentence has an object clause, we can make a special kind of passive:
active
passive1
passive2
When someone does a professional service for us, we use the causative form. This form is also used to relate a bad experience:
