Over time, teachers of English in tertiary institutions have observed several problems that undergraduates as second language users of English encounter in an attempt to use the passive in their writing and speech. For instance, one could find in undergraduates’ essays expressions such as the following:
- The situation can be referred/refer to as … (instead of referred to)
- Socialization can be defined/described as … (instead of defined/described as)
- Linguistics is concerned with … (instead of concerned with)
It is, therefore, necessary to clarify all the relevant issues concerning the construction and use of the passive in English. In this chapter, you will learn about the relationship between the active and the passive voice in English and the rules for changing active sentences to passive.
The Notion of Voice in English
Voice in English is a phenomenon that explains participants’ relations in a sentence regarding the semantic roles participants play and how these are expressed in the verb group. Two participant roles are important in the English voice:the actor and the sufferer/affected. For instance, in the sentence: 1a.He collected the knife
‘He’ is the actor, while ‘the knife’ is the sufferer. Grammatically, ‘he’ is the subject which could be described as the active subject, while ‘the knife’ is the direct object. If the same sentence is reframed as follows: 1b. The knife was collected by him
‘Him’ remains the actor, and ‘the knife’ remains the affected. However, grammatically, ‘the knife’ is now in the subject position as the passive subject, while ‘him’ (the active subject in the previous sentence) is now an optional agentive adjunct in the ‘by-phrase’, i.e., ‘by him’. In other words, while the semantic roles of the participants (i.e., ‘he’ and ‘the knife’) have not changed in the two sentences, their grammatical positions have changed, resulting in them being labeled differently. While the first sentence is in the active voice, the second is in the passive voice. Beyond grammar, the passive is used when we do not know the performer of the action in a sentence, e.g.,
The windscreen was broken.
My mobile phone has been stolen.
But then, there is a question we may wish to ask ourselves: Why do we use or choose to use the passive sentence in our writing or speech instead of the active one? Do we use it only when we do not know the performer of the action in a sentence?
Preference for the Passive
Writers often choose to use the passive sentence instead of the active for the following reasons:
- To direct and maintain focus on the sufferer of an action instead of the actual performer/doer of the action, e.g.:
The windscreen was damaged, and two of the tires were deflated completely.
An urgent investigation must be carried out.
2. To avoid mentioning the performer probably for official purposes, e.g.:
The proposals have been rejected.
The students will be suspended.
3. When there is no point mentioning the actor/performer of the action, e.g.:
So, it was agreed without further argument that the milk and the windfall apples should be reserved for the pigs alone. (George Orwell’s Animal Farm)
