ACTIVE / PASSIVE VOICE
Active voiceIn most English sentences with an action verb, the subject performs the action denoted by the verb.
These examples show that the subject is doing the verb's action.
Because the subject does or "acts upon" the verb in such sentences, the sentences are said to be in the active voice.
Passive voice
One can change the normal word order of many active sentences (those with a direct object) so that the subject is no longer active, but is, instead, being acted upon by the verb - or passive.
Note in these examples how the subject-verb relationship has changed.
Because the subject is being "acted upon" (or is passive), such sentences are said to be in the passive voice.
NOTE: Colorful parrots live in the rainforests cannot be changed to passive voice because the sentence does not have a direct object.
To change a sentence from active to passive voice, do the following:
1. Move the active sentence's direct object into the sentence's subject slot
2. Place the active sentence's subject into a phrase beginning with the preposition by
3. Add a form of the auxiliary verb be to the main verb and change the main verb's form
Because passive voice sentences necessarily add words and change the normal doer-action-receiver of action direction, they may make the reader work harder to understand the intended meaning.
As the examples below illustrate, a sentence in active voice flows more smoothly and is easier to understand than the same sentence in passive voice.
It is generally preferable to use the ACTIVE voice.
To change a passive voice sentence into an active voice sentence, simply reverse the steps shown above.
1. Move the passive sentence's subject into the active sentence's direct object slot
2. Remove the auxiliary verb be from the main verb and change main verb's form if needed
3. Place the passive sentence's object of the preposition by into the subject slot.
Because it is more direct, most writers prefer to use the active voice whenever possible.
The passive voice may be a better choice, however, when
- the doer of the action is unknown, unwanted, or unneeded in the sentence
- the writer wishes to emphasize the action of the sentence rather than the doer of the action
- the writer wishes to use passive voice for sentence variety.
For example:
Active Voice: The twister left a path of destruction.
Passive Voice: A path of destruction was left by the twister.
Active and Passive Voice in English - a Presentation
Active Voice
Most of the students do some homework.
Subject Verb Object
Subject Verb Object
Some homework is done by most of the students.
Passive Voice
When we turn an active sentence into the passive, subject and object are swapped so that the original object becomes the new subject, the doer becomes a prepositional object and the verb is turned into the passive form.
The original subject sometimes disappears in the passive when the doer is unknown , obvious or unimportant:
A mechanic repaired my car yesterday. ® My car was repaired yesterday.
Passive Verb Formation
The passive forms of a verb are created by combining a form of the "to be verb" with the past participle of the main verb. Other helping verbs are also sometimes present: "The measure could have been killed in committee." The passive can be used, also, in various tenses. Let's take a look at the passive forms of "design."Tense | Subject | Auxiliary | Past Participle | |
Singular | Plural | |||
Present | The car/cars | is | are | designed. |
Present perfect | The car/cars | has been | have been | designed. |
Past | The car/cars | was | were | designed. |
Past perfect | The car/cars | had been | had been | designed. |
Future | The car/cars | will be | will be | designed. |
Future perfect | The car/cars | will have been | will have been | designed. |
Present progressive | The car/cars | is being | are being | designed. |
Past progressive | The car/cars | was being | were being | designed. |
A sentence cast in the passive voice will not always include an agent of the action. For instance if a gorilla crushes a tin can, we could say "The tin can was crushed by the gorilla." But a perfectly good sentence would leave out the gorilla: "The tin can was crushed." Also, when an active sentence with an indirect object is recast in the passive, the indirect object can take on the role of subject in the passive sentence:
Active | Professor Villa gave Jorge an A. |
Passive | An A was given to Jorge by Professor Villa. |
Passive | Jorge was given an A. |
Only transitive verbs (those that take objects) can be transformed into passive constructions. Furthermore, active sentences containing certain verbs cannot be transformed into passive structures. To have is the most important of these verbs. We can say "He has a new car," but we cannot say "A new car is had by him." We can say "Josefina lacked finesse," but we cannot say "Finesse was lacked." Here is a brief list of such verbs*:
resemble | look like | equal | agree with |
mean | contain | hold | comprise |
lack | suit | fit | become |
Verbals in Passive Structures
Verbals or verb forms can also take on features of the passive voice. An infinitive phrase in the passive voice, for instance, can perform various functions within a sentence (just like the active forms of the infinitive).- Subject: To be elected by my peers is a great honor.
- Object: That child really likes to be read to by her mother.
- Modifier: Grasso was the first woman to be elected governor in her own right.
The same is true of passive gerunds.
- Subject: Being elected by my peers was a great thrill.
- Object: I really don't like being lectured to by my boss.
- Object of preposition: I am so tired of being lectured to by my boss.
With passive participles, part of the passive construction is often omitted, the result being a simple modifying participial phrase.
[Having been] designed for off-road performance, the Pathseeker does not always behave well on paved highways
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