ACTIVE AND PASSIVE VOICE

Welcome to this lecture headed “ACTIVE AND PASSIVE VOICE”. We will be discussing all about active and passive voice. Enjoy your lecture.

Use of Passive voice

We make use of the passive voice only when we are interested in the object or when we are not aware of the person or thing that caused the action.

For example: Appointments are required in instances like that.Formation of Passive sentence when we are provided with active sentence

to be + past participle

How to form a passive sentence when an active sentence is provided

object of the active sentence is turned to subject in the passive sentence

subject of the active sentence is turned to object in the passive sentence” (o r is left out)

We can merely form a passive sentence from an active sentence when there is an object in the active sentence.

Type of sentence	Subject	Verb	Object
Active sentence	Thomas	builds	a house.
Passive sentence	A house	is built	by Thomas

For instance:

Simple Present

Type of sentence	Subject	Verb	Object
Active sentence	Thomas	builds	a house.
Passive sentence	A house	is built	by Thomas

Simple Past

Type of sentence	Subject	Verb	Object
Active sentence	Thomas	built	a house.
Passive sentence	A house	was built	by Thomas

Present Perfect

Type of sentence	Subject	Verb	Object
Active sentence	Thomas	has built	a house.
Passive sentence	A house	has been built	by Thomas

will-future

Type of sentence	Subject	Verb	Object
Active sentence	Thomas	will build	a house.
Passive sentence	A house	will be built	by Thomas

Modals

Type of sentence	Subject	Verb	Object
Active sentence	Thomas	can build	a house.
Passive sentence	A house	can be built	by Thomas

Personal Passive – Impersonal Passive – It is said

Personal Passive

When we put an object of an active sentence into passive, it becomes subject of the passive sentence.

Active sentence → The teacher gave the students the books.

Passive sentence → The students were given the books.

We now and then use a pronoun for the students or the books in its subject form (In this instance: they).

Active sentence → The teacher gave them the books.

Passive sentence → They were given the books.

We very frequently leave out the ‘by’ part in the passive sentence (In this case: by the teacher).Impersonal Passive – It is said …

The phrase It is said … is an impersonal passive sentence structure. We frequently make use of it in news.

Passive sentence 1 → It is said that many women are plagued by fear of Gboko haram.

Passive sentence 2 → Women are said to be plagued by Gboko haram.

The correct active sentence would be:

Active sentence → People say that many woman are plagued by fear of Gbokoharam.

Where to put Verbs with prepositions in Passive sentences

When we put an active sentence, where a preposition follows after the verb (e.g. break into, look after, listen to), into passive – the preposition remains immediately after the verb.

For example

Active sentence	Passive sentence
Burglar broke into the supermarket	The supermarket was broken into.
They looked for the boy	The boy was looked for.
Someone yells at the girl	The girl is yelled at.
They listen to the music	Music is listened to

How to form questions in Passive

Questions in Passive are formed with to be and the past participle *.Questions without questions words in Passive (Simple Present)

Form of be	Subject	past participle	Rest	Yes/No	Subject	Auxiliary (+ n’t)
Is	the exam	conducted	in basic 2 classroom?	Yes, No, No,	it, it, it	is. is not. isn’t.
Are	Onions	grown	in Nigeria?	Yes, No, No,	they, they, they	are. are not. aren’t.

Questions with questions words in Passive (Simple Present)

Question word	Form of be	Subject	Past participle	Rest	Answer
Where	is	the exam	conducted?		The exam is carried out in Basic 1 classroom.
Why	are	grapes	grown	in Nigeria?	Onions are grown in Nigeria because it’s warm and sunny

Questions without questions words in Passive sentence (Simple Past)

Form of be	Subject	past participle	Rest	Yes/No	Subject	Auxiliary (+ n’t)
Was	the book	taken	to the classroom?	Yes, No, No,	it, it, it	was. was not. wasn’t.
Were	the parents	able	to come?	Yes, No, No,	they, they, they	were. were not. weren’t.

Questions with question words in Passive (Simple Past)

Question word	Form of be	Subject	Past participle	Rest	Answer
Where	was	the school bag	taken?		The school bag was taken to the classroom.
Why	were	the parents	absent	at home?	The parents were absent because they were very busy

Other tenses

Tense	Auxiliary	Subject	Verb
Present Perfect	Has	the building plan	been drawn?
Past Perfect	Had	the building plan	been drawn?
Will-future	Will	the building plan	be drawn?
going to-future	Is	the building plan	going to be drawn?
Future Perfect	Will	the building plan	have been drawn?
Conditional I	Would	the building plan	be drawn?
Conditional II	Would	the building plan	have been drawn?

Below are further examples in other tenses. Let’s start with the simple forms:Below are two progressive forms:

Tense	Auxiliary	Subject	Verb
Present Progressive	is	the building plan	being drawn?
Past Progressive	Was	the building plan	being drawn?

Past participle:regular verbs → infinitive + -edirregular verbs → 3rd column of the table of the irregular verbsActive sentences with two objects in PassiveWhen there are two objects in active sentence – two probable passive sentences would be obtained. For example:Sentence 1: The teacher gave the students the books.Sentence 2: The teacher gave the books to the students.There are two objects in each of the following sentences:Object 1 = indirect object → the studentsObject 2 = direct object → the booksAn indirect object is very frequently a person, while a direct object is frequently a thing. When a direct object is followed by an indirect object, we put to in front of the indirect object. For example:Active sentence 1SubjectVerbdirect Objectindirect ObjectThe teachergavethe studentsthe books.Active sentence 2SubjectVerbdirect Objectindirect Object with toThe teachergavethe booksto the students.Each of the objects (books/students) in the active sentences can turn into subject in the passive sentence.Passive sentence 1SubjectVerbObject(by-agent)The studentswere giventhe books(by the teacher).Passive sentence 2SubjectVerbObject(by-agent)The bookswere givento the students(by the teacher).Passive sentence 1 is occasionally known as Personal passive.

by agent in Passive

Examples for the by-agent

We are usually not interested in the ›doer‹ of an action in a passive sentence. When we want to talk about the ›doer‹, we make use of the preposition by. The whole phrase is known by-agent in English.

Active sentence	Passive sentence
Mr. Billy built the house	The house was built by Mr. Billy

When we do not know, who the ›doer‹ of the action was, we make use of someone or somebody in the active sentence. We leave out these words in the passive sentence.

Active sentence	Passive sentence
Somebody stole my tricycle	My tricycle was stolen.

Where to put verbs with prepositions in Passive sentence

When we put an active sentence, where a preposition comes after the verb (e.g. break into, look after, listen to), into passive – the preposition remains directly after the verb.

Active sentence	Passive sentence
Someone broke into the provision shop	The provision shop was broken into
They looked for the boy.	The boy was looked for.
Someone yells at the man	The man is yelled at.
They listen to the music.	Music is listened to.

The following table illustrates active and passive forms .We made use of the phrase I take and put this phrase into the most widespread tenses.

Reasons to usually Avoid Passive Voice

Every so often, the use of passive voice can generate awkward sentences, as in the last example above. Again, overdoing of passive voice all through an essay can cause your prose to look flat and boring. In scientific writing, though, passive voice is more eagerly accepted since making use of it allows one to write without making use personal pronouns or the names of particular researchers as the subjects of sentences. This practice assists to produce the appearance of an objective, fact-based discussion due to the fact that writers can present research and conclusions without featuring them to particular agents. As an alternative, the writing seeks to pass on information that is not limited or biased by individual perspectives or individual interests.Recognizing Passive Voice

You can recognize passive-voice expressions due to the verb phrase will at all times include a form of be, like am, is, was, were, are, or been. The presence of a be-verb, though, does not essentially mean that the sentence is in passive voice. Another way to recognize passive-voice sentences is that they may include a “by the…” phrase after the verb; the agent carrying out the action, if named, is the object of the preposition in this phrase.

A quick summary of the active and passive voice verb forms.

Tense	Active voice	Passive voice
Simple present tense	Verb form: first form of the verb Examples They speak Igbo here. He speaks Latin.	Verb form: is / am / are + past participle form of the verb Examples Igbo is spoken here. Latin is spoken by him
Present continuous tense	Verb form: is/am/are + -ing form of the verb Examples She is reading a letter.	Verb form: is/am/are + being + past participle form of the verb Examples A letter is being read by her.
Present perfect tense	Verb form: has/have + past participle form of the verb Examples: I have read a novel	Verb form: has/have + been + past participle form of the verb Examples: A novel has been read by me.
Simple past	Verb form: past tense form of the verb Examples: Rita broke a plate.	Verb form: was/were + past participle form of the verb Examples: A plate was broken by Rita.
Past continuous tense	Verb form: was/were + -ing form of the verb Examples They were making boats.	Verb form: was/were + being + past participle form of the verb Examples Boats were being made by them.
Past perfect tense	Verb form: had + past participle form of the verb Examples He had learned his lessons.	Verb form: had + been + past participle form of the verb Examples: His lessons had been learned by him.
Simple future tense	Verb form: will/shall + first form of the verb Examples She will resolve the issue.	Verb form: will/shall + be + past participle form of the verb Examples: The issue will be resolved by her.
Future perfect	Verb form: will/shall + have + past participle form of the verb Examples I will have finished the food.	Verb form: will/shall + have + been + past participle form of the verb Examples The food will have been finished by me.

Thanks for reaching to this point marking the end of this lecture.

Your Lecture Master:

Mst. Ugonwanne Joshua