Contents
- How to Recognize Active and
Passive Sentences
- Basic Examples
- Difference between Passive Voice
and Past Tense
- Imperatives: Active Commands
- Sloppy Passive Construction
- Linking Verbs: Neither Active
nor Passive
- Passive Voice is not Wrong
- Tricky Examples
- Links to Active & Passive
Verb Resources
- Works Cited
How to Recognize Active and Passive Sentences
^
- Identify the subject of the sentence.
- Identify the action that the sentence identifies.
- Examine the relationship between the subject and verb.
- Does the subject perform the action of the verb? (If so, the
sentence is active.)
- Does the subject sit there while something else -- named or
unnamed -- performs an action on it? (If so, the sentence is passive.)
- Can't tell? If the main verb is a linking
verb ("is," "was," "are," "seems,"
etc.), then the verb functions like an equals sign; there is no
action (either active or passive) involved -- it merely describes
a state of being.
Basic Examples ^
I love you.
- subject: "I"
- action: "loving"
- relationship: The subject ("I") is the
one performing the action ("loving").
The sentence is active.
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You are loved by me.
- subject: "you"
- action: "loving"
- relationship: The subject ("You") sits
passively while the action ("loving") is performed
by somebody else ("me").
This sentence is passive.
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Difference between Passive Voice and Past Tense
^
Many people confuse the passive voice with the past tense.
The most common passive constructions also happen to be past tense (e.g.
"I've been framed"), but "voice" has to do with who, while "tense"
has to do with when.
|
Active Voice |
Passive Voice |
| Past Tense |
I taught; I learned. |
I was (have been) taught [by someone];
It was (has been) learned [by someone]. |
| Present Tense |
I teach; I learn. |
I am [being] taught [by someone];
It is [being] learned [by someone]. |
| Future Tense |
I will teach; I will learn. |
I will be taught [by someone];
It will be learned [by someone]. |
A command (or "imperative") is a kind of active sentence,
in which "you" (the one being addressed) are being ordered
to perform the action. (If you refuse to obey, the sentence is
still active.)
- Get to work on time.
- Insert tab A into slot B.
- Take me to your leader.
- Ladies and gentlement, let us consider, for a moment, the effect
of the rafting sequences on our understanding of the rest of the novel.
Sloppy Passive Constructions ^
Because passive sentences do not need to identify the performer of
an action, they can lead to sloppy or misleading statements (especially
in technical writing). Compare
how clear and direct these passive sentences become, when they are rephrased
as imperative sentences
 |
To drain the tank, the
grill should be removed, or the storage compartment can be flooded. |
| |
Because they do not specify the actors, the passive verbs
("should be removed" and "can be flooded") contribute
to the confusing structure of this sentence.
Does the sentence
1) offer two different ways to drain the tank ("you may
either remove the grill or flood the compartment")?
...or does it
2) warn of an undesirable causal result ("if you drain
the tank without removing the grill, the result will be that
the storage compartment is flooded")? |
 |
Revision 1: Drain the tank
in one of the following ways:
- remove the grill
- flood the storage compartment
|
|
Revision 2: 1)
Remove the grill.
2) Drain the tank.
Warning: If you fail to remove
the grill first, you may flood the storage compartment (which
is where you are standing right now).
|
Linking Verbs: Neither Active
nor Passive ^
When the verb performs the function of an equals sign,
the verb is said to be a linking verb. Linking verbs describe no action
-- they merely state an existing condition or relationship; hence,
they are neither passive nor active.
| Subject |
= |
Description |
| The door |
is |
blue. |
| The door |
was |
closed. |
| This |
could be |
the first day of the rest of my life. |
| She |
might have been |
very nice. |
The Passive Voice Is not Wrong
^
Passive verbs are not automatically wrong. When used
rarely and deliberately, the passive voice serves an important purpose.
Mistakes will be made, and lives will
be lost; the sad truth is learned anew by each generation.
-
When you wish to downplay the actor:
Three grams of reagent 'A' were added
to a beaker of 10% saline solution.
(In the scientific world, the actions
of a researcher are ideally not supposed to affect the outcome of
an experiment; the experiment is supposed to be the same no matter
who carries it out. I will leave it to you and your chemistry professor
to figure out whether that's actually true, but in the meantime,
don't use excessive passive verbs simply to avoid using "I"
in a science paper.)
-
When the actor is unknown:
The victim was approached from behind and hit
over the head with a salami.
Tricky Examples ^
Punctuality
seems important.
- subject: the phrase "punctuality"
- action: "being" ("seems" is
short for "seems to be")
- relationship: The subject does nothing at all; the
verb "is" functions as an equals sign: "punctuality
= important".
This sentence describes a state of being (neither
active nor passive).
(If you replace the single word "punctuality" with
the phrase "Getting to work on time" or "The
sum total of the knowledge of tribes of prehistoric America
collected by amateur archeologists during the latter half
of the nineteenth century," the grammar of the sentence
does not change.)
|
Remember
to brush your teeth.
- subject: (You) This is an order; the subject is
the person being ordered.
- action: "remember" (not "brushing")
- relationship: The subject is supposed to do the remembering.
Whether the subject actually obeys the command is irrelevant
to the grammar of the sentence.
This sentence gives an order. Active.
(It may be grammatically possible to give
an order with a passive verb, such as a Shakespearean curse
like "Be damned!" But most commands you encounter
will be active.)
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Links to Active & Passive Verb
Resources ^
Looking for more help?
Works Cited ^
Orwell, George. "Politics
and the English Language."
A Collection of Essays. New
York: Doubleday Anchor Books,
1954. 167-177.
Strunk, William. Elements
of Style. Ithaca, N.Y.: Priv print,
1918. <http://www.bartleby.com/141/>
03 Jul 2004.
United States. Securities
and Exchange Commission. A Plain English
Handbook. Draft. Washington
D.C. 1977. <http://www.sec.gov/
consumer/plaine.htm>.
12 Apr 1999.
Dennis G.
Jerz
25 Sep 2000 -- first posted to ORR
21 May 2002 -- minor maintenance
05 Nov 2002 -- minor reformatting
04 Jul 2004 -- rearrangement and tweaking
03 oct 2007 -- fixed broken link
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