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In English we can use the active voice or the passive voice depending on the message we want to convey. With the active voice we follow the order of subject and predicate in which we have a verb and one or more complements. Sometimes, within the complements we can find a direct object complement and then we can convert our sentence to the passive voice. Meanwhile, in the passive voice, the direct object moves to the first place of the sentence, to the position previously occupied by the subject. In turn, the subject can be present in the sentence or it can be omitted.
In English, the use of the passive voice is quite widespread, although many consider it a structure without merit, especially when the subject of the sentence is unknown or unimportant. Within the English-speaking scientific community, the use of the passive voice is recommended, particularly in scientific articles.
Formation of the passive voice in English
To understand how to form the passive voice in English, the following active sentence will be taken as a starting point:
- Lucia wrote a wonderful letter yesterday .
- «Yesterday Lucía wrote a wonderful letter».
In that sentence we can see: Lucia is the subject, wrote is the verb and a wonderful letter is the direct object complement.
To express this with the passive voice, we must “invert” the order of these elements and also add the verb to be conjugated correctly. The passive sentence would look like this:
- A wonderful letter was written yesterday by Lucia .
- “A wonderful letter was written by Lucia yesterday.”
In addition to the inversion of elements, the main verb in the past tense then changes to the past participle.
- Active voice: I bought a camera . (“I bought a camera”).
- Passive voice: A camera was bought (by me) . (“A camera was bought [by me]).
- Active voice: My brothers were cooking lasagna . (“My brothers cooked lasagna”).
- Passive voice: Lasagna was being cooked (by my brothers) . (“The lasagna was being cooked [by my brothers]).
Original examples of passive voice in English
- “ [Fern] found an old milking stool that had been discarded , and she placed the stool in the sheepfold next to Wilbur’s pen.”
- (“[Fern] found an old milking stool that had been discarded and placed it in the pen next to Wilbur’s pen.”)
Taken from Charlotte’s Web ( Carlota ‘s web ) by EB White.
- ” Pandora, from Greek mythology, was given a box with all the world’s evils in it.”
- (“Pandora, the character from Greek mythology, was given a box containing all the evils of the world.”)
Taken from Randy Pausch’s The Last Lecture .
Examples of passive voice in Spanish
Sometimes it is useful to compare with our native language to find the same structure and see how it works. This can help us understand what we are learning in the foreign language we are studying. In Spanish, the passive voice looks like this:
- We have discovered that the files were altered .
- The banknotes of the new monetary cone will be issued by the Central Bank.
Most common uses of the passive voice in English
When we do not know the author of the action
When the author of the actions is completely unknown in a story, the passive voice should be used. For example, someone who arrives at your home and finds the place in disarray due to what appears to be a robbery may express themselves as follows:
When I got there everything was a mess, the window was broken and the tables had been flipped . My money was stolen and several other objects were taken from my room.
(“When I arrived, everything was in disarray, the window was broken and the tables had been turned over. My money had been stolen and several other objects were stolen from my room.”)
When the subject is not relevant
Sometimes, sentences contain important information in which the person performing the action has little interest. In these cases the emphasis is left on the expressed action.
In Latin America, Spanish is widely spoken ; several indigenous languages are also spoken but these are a minority.
The evasive use of the passive voice
Sometimes, the use or abuse of the passive voice can result in a speech in which no one is responsible for the events that are related there.
In English, the evasive use of the passive voice can be observed abundantly in children’s speech. Children, when doing some mischief, express in a passive voice those actions that they do not want to admit or in which they do not want to appear guilty. For example, a child who plays with his favorite toy and breaks it due to rough use may say « It is broken » («se romório») instead of using the active voice and be involved by saying « I broke it » (« I broke it”). From there derives the belief that the passive voice has no place in adult speech, although this is not entirely true.
- The window was broken yesterday .
- The window broke yesterday.
- Many people were fired this week .
- Many people were laid off this week.
Curiously, in Spanish this phenomenon is also present and is the subject of research. In a study carried out with school books in some primary schools in Venezuela, the researchers concluded that, among other things, the use of the passive voice caused the actors in the sentences to remain negatively marked throughout the speech and that this was a common feature of texts produced in the context of a racist society.
Tips for using the passive voice in English
Avoid starting sentences with it is… or there is…
This is not a grammatical error, but starting sentences with it is takes away force and emphasis from the structure; It is considered a youthful way of writing and without the necessary maturity.
“There is little attention given to the event.”
“Little attention is given to the event.”
Correctly use the article
The definite article the has so many uses that it is a required topic at both basic and advanced levels of language learning. Although in Spanish it finds its equivalent in “el, la, los, las”, one must be careful since many times it does not correspond in use.
Eliminate overuse of that
The relative pronoun that should only be included at the beginning of a dependent clause or when describing a subject or noun.
“The results that were found in this study showed many people like fruits.”
References
- Bisbe, B. (2009). Traces of anti-indigenous racism in Venezuelan school textbooks from the late eighties . Available at: http://ve.scielo.org/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0798-97842009000100001
- Marlow, M. (2014). Writing scientific articles like a native English speaker: top ten tips for Portuguese speakers . Available at: https://www.scielo.br/j/clin/a/zcs47Q4bsW6yk7D86XQCVss/?lang=en
- Zamora, V. (2021). Active voice and passive voice in English: Solve all your doubts. Available at: https://www.britishcouncil.org.mx/blog/voz-activa-voz-pasiva
