UNIT 27: THE PASSIVE VOICE: FORMS AND FUNCTIONS

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

1. INTRODUCTION
2. THE PASSIVE VOICE
3. THE PASSIVE VOICE: FORMS
a. The verb to be passive
b. The verb to get passive
c. Finite forms
d. Non-Finite forms
e. Agent phrases
f. Verbs usually only found in the passive
4. THE PASSIVE VOICE: FUNCTIONS
a. Main functions of the passive voice
b. Causative passive constructions: verb to have pseudo passives
c. Non-agent phrases
i. Detached/Impersonal styles
ii. Anticipatory <it>
iii. Existential <there>
d. Other verbs with passive meaning
5. CONCLUSION
6. BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. INTRODUCTION

In English, the passive voice is a grammatical voice in which the subject receives the action of a
transitive verb. In English, a passive verb is periphrastic, that is, it includes two verb forms
consisting of an auxiliary verb (in any tense) and a past participle. The auxiliary verb used is
normally the verb ‘to be’, but others can be used, such as ‘get’ or ‘become’. However, the
predominant voice in English is the active and many authors claim that the use of the passive voice
should be minimised even further. Nevertheless, there is a general agreement that the passive is
useful when the receiver of the action is more important than the doer. In this topic we will deal
with the forms and functions of the passive voice, while providing examples to illustrate it.

2. THE PASSIVE VOICE

The use of the passive voice is generally a personal choice of the speaker, and this choice makes a
difference in the statement that we make. The active voice is the most common form and it is
chosen to state something about the agent of an action, as the subject is expressed as the
grammatical subject and is who triggers the actions. For example: She made a cake where ‘she’ is
the subject and agent of the action, and the rest of the sentence is the rheme of the clause. On the
other hand, if we use the passive voice, the starting point of the message is the person or thing that
is affected by the action. For example: The Parc Güell was designed by Gaudí. In this case, The
Parc Güell is the subject of the sentence, but it is not the agent of it; the agent is expressed in the
clause starting with ‘by’. In this way, the Parc Güell receives or suffers the action started by the
agent.

The passive construction can only be made with transitive verbs, where the direct object of the
active becomes the passive subject of the passive, and the subject of the active becomes the agent of
the passive. For example, copulative verbs in an active sentence cannot become a passive
construction, for example She is a good teacher  *A good teacher is been by her.

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Generally speaking, we can say that English speakers may decide to use the passive voice in the
following cases:

Agent unknown: when the agent is unknown or it is referred to in an imprecise, vague way,
such as somebody, people, them. For example: Bills are passed in the Congress.
Obvious subject: when the active subject is obvious or evident through the context and it is
absolutely unnecessary to mention. For example: The criminal was arrested.
Special reason: when there is any special reason to avoid mentioning the active subject, such
as avoid hurting people’s feelings. For example: New taxes will be applied (instead of The
government will apply new taxes).
Actions are more relevant: when actions seem more relevant than the person who puts them
into practice. For example: the girl was mugged as soon as she left the restaurant.

3. THE PASSIVE VOICE: FORMS

3.1 The verb to be passive

The most common passive structure is the one with the verb to be. It is formed by making the object
of an active sentence the grammatical subject of the passive sentence. We also add verb to be in the
same tense as in the active sentence and the past participle of the verb used in the active. Finally, we
may have an agent, which is indicated as a prepositional phrase with <by>. However, this agent is
sometimes not needed, mainly because we do not know the person or thing that made the action of
the verb or give no importance to it.

We can find object verbs, two-object verbs and object-complement verbs. Object verbs are also
called transitive verbs: For example: Hamlet was written by Shakespeare.

On the other hand, two-object verbs (aka ditransitive verbs) carry a direct and indirect object. Eg.:
He was granted his wish or His wish was granted to him.

Finally, object-complement verbs are those which can take an object and a complement. Eg.: The
positive resolution was taken for granted.

3.2 The verb to get passive

This passive construction is similar to the previous one, but the difference is that we use the verb to
get and a past participle. Eg.: The robbers got busted by the police, or, how much do teachers get
paid in Spain.

Likewise, reflexive structures occur with get-passives when the recipient of an action is the agent of
the same action at the same time. Eg.: He got hurt when trying to fix his car.

We can also find a causative use of the passive with the verb to get which allows a person affected
by an action to be made the grammatical subject. Eg.: She’ll get you taken back home once the
party is over.

3.3 Finite forms

We can find different ways to express the passive voice, the most typical being with the verb to be.
Eg.: Ted was promoted last year.

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Other forms of passive clauses can be called pseudo-passive forms of causative passive. In this
case, we use the verbs to get and to have. Here the grammatical subject is also usually the recipient
of the action. However, they are used in different situations from true passives because the degree
of involvement of the recipient in initiating the action is lower. Eg.: Liz had her house painted
yesterday. In more colloquial language, we use the verb to get. Eg.: I must get this done by the end
of the morning.

3.4 Non-finite forms

All types of passive constructions can also occur in non-finite clauses, that is, a clause with a verb
with no indication of tense, which depends for the interpretation of its time reference on other
clauses in the environment. That is to say, a clause which contains a lexical verb which has no tense
indication. Non-finite clauses can normally only be subordinate, and usually combined with finite
clauses in sentence. We can find –ing forms, to-infinitve clauses or –ed clauses:

Having been advised on the topic, I have a better perspective.

I expect this to be signed by 10.
I recognised to have been conned.
Organised by the English Department, the New York meeting was a success.

3.5 Agent phrases

It usually represents the person or thing that generates the action in the passive sentence. The
typical agent phrase begins with the preposition by as we can see in the following examples:

The iPhone was designed by Apple in California.

He was arrested by the police.

However, there are other cases where the subject of the original active sentence is not the true active
agent of an event. In these cases, we can use other prepositions such as: on, in, with.

Happiness cannot be bought with money.

3.6 Verbs usually only found in the passive

There is a group of verbs with are more frequently used in the passive than in the active voice.
These include: to be born, to be stranded, to be populated, to be taken aback.

Madonna was not born in Italy. She was born in the USA.
This village was populated with foreign citizens.
Settlers were taken aback by the difficulty of the task.

4. THE PASSIVE VOICE: FUNCTIONS

4.1 Main functions

 The passive voice can be used with a number of different functions. Probably, the function
that all learners are taught is the use of the passive as a means to emphasise the performer of
the action or when the doer is not relevant. Actually, the passive voice is particularly useful

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 when the doer of an action is irrelevant or unknown. Eg. An apartment was broken into
yesterday morning.

 Another function is the use of the passive voice to conceal the performer of an action or the
identity of a person responsible for a mistake. Eg. I would like to remind you that we were
supposed to have the project finished by now, but data was inadvertently deleted from our
files. By using the passive structure in this sentence, the speaker avoids identifying the guilty
person.

 Contrarily to what is usually thought, another use of the passive voice is to emphasise the
doer of an action by putting it in a prepositional phrase at the very end of the sentence,
which creates a kind of suspense by delaying the announcement of the name. Eg.: The
theory, which represented an enormous breakthrough, was proposed by Albert Einstein.

 We can also use the passive to emphasise a modifying verb. Eg.: My words have been
utterly distorted and misinterpreted by everyone present at the press conference.

 Scientists use the passive structure to describe natural processes or phenomena under study.
Researchers use the passive as a conventional means of impersonal reporting and
emphasising of the process so that the importance of the researcher, the agent, is reduced.

 In spoken English, when dealing with a formal context, we often prefer to use a passive so
that we can avoid any mention of an agent. For example: the new computer network is
being installed next Friday morning. However, some verbs have related nouns which
express the same meaning and can be used as the subject of passive sentences with a new
passive verb: The installation of the new computer network will be finished by next Friday
morning.

 Finally, a passive construction without the verb to be is found in newspaper headlines as a

way to summarise or shorten a piece of news. Eg.: Teachers told to work longer hours or
Former president exposed as imposter.

4.2 Causative passive constructions: verb to have pseudo passives

Pseudo passives with have are form with the verb to have plus an object plus a past participle of the
verb. This type of have-pseudo-passives allow the person affected by an action to be the
grammatical subject of a sentence as well as the logical one starting the message. That is to say, the
recipient of the action is the object and the responsible (but not the one who did it) is the subject.
We use this structure in two occasions:

1. When telling what we arrange for someone to do for us. Eg. I have my house painted every
year.
2. When relating unfortunate experiences. In this case, we tend to avoid ‘have’ and prefer to
use ‘get’. Eg.: Pau Gasol got his ankle twisted in the NBA final.

4.3 Non-agent phrases

When we have a passive construction with an agent phrase we call it an agentless passive. As we
have mentioned before, the reasons why we may not want to include the agent are several: agent is
irrelevant, unknown, obvious, non-interesting or we want to avoid saying it. We may find several
types of agentless passives:

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 1. Detached / Impersonal styles: passive constructions without an agent are typically used in
impersonal speaking and writing styles like academic or technical language, where the focus
of attention is the process. Here we will find reporting verbs such as believe, consider, find,
say or think. Eg.: Pollution produced here in Britain is transported as far as Scandinavia.

2. Anticipatory <it>: we use ‘it’ to make forward reference to a complement clause. Eg.: It has
been discussed that manners are intrinsically associated to each country.

3. Existential <there>, which emphasises the passive subject by permitting an indefinite

subject to be placed later in a passive clause. Eg.: There was a great confusion created after
the blast.

4.4 Other verbs with a passive meaning

There is another group of verbs in English that has a similar meaning to a passive voice structures.
These verbs are: deserve, need, require and want. These verbs can be followed by an active –ing
form structure, although the grammatical subject is the affected participant of the process denoted
by the verb. In doing so, they create a meaning very similar to a passive structure.

Eg.: It requires keeping in the fridge. // The door knob is a bit rusty. It needs trying hard.

5. CONCLUSION

In this topic, we have seen that there are different types of passive constructions. In most cases, the
use of the passive sentence implies a choice on the hand of the speaker, basically because the
speaker wants to achieve a particular effect. Most of the times, this effect means giving a higher
importance to the action than to the doer. In other cases, the use of the passive responds to
grammatical or stylistic reasons.

On the other hand, we need to look at the passive sentence from a pedagogical viewpoint. In this
sense, grammar is just a tool for the learner to create communicative situations. The teacher should
adapt a role in which they provide the students with authentic contextualised situations in which the
passive voice might be used. It is important not to forget that this is one of the requirements stated
in the CEFRL.