Nama :
CHRISTIAN ADI NUGRAHA
NPM :
10209968
Kelas :
4EA15
Mata Kuliah :
Bahasa Inggris Bisnis 2
Materi :
Passive Voice
What is the passive voice?
In general we tend to use the active voice. That
is when a subject does an action to an object.
- Somebody stole my laptop. (subject = Somebody / action(verb) = stole / object = my laptop)
The passive voice is used when we want to
emphasize the action (the verb) and the object of a sentence rather than
subject. This means that the subject is either less important than the action
itself or that we don’t know who or what the subject is.
- My laptop was stolen. (The object – now the subject = My laptop / action= was stolen)
- Passive: Napa Valley is known for its excellent wines.
- Active: [Many people] know Napa Valley for its excellent wines.
- Passive: Twenty civilians were killed in the bomb explosion.
- Active: Someone killed twenty civilians in the bomb explosion.
The passive agent
When we know who the subject is, we put it at the
end with by. We call this an agent.
- Passive: The Mona Lisa was painted by Leonardo Da Vinci. (agent =Leonardo Da Vinci )
- Active: Leonaro Da Vinci painted the Mona Lisa.
Most writing instructors and editors recommend
against using the passive voice, when possible. The reason for this is that
when you use the active voice, your writing is clearer and less complicated.
- Active: While Mr. Taylor was driving down Highway 101, a police officer pulled him over and gave him a speeding ticket.
- Passive: While Mr. Taylor was driving down Highway 101, he was pulled over and given a ticket by a police officer.
If it’s a long sentence and you know who the
subject is, it’s best to use the active voice.
The passive is often used to report something or
to state a fact.
- Highway 15 was closed yesterday due to a serious road accident.
- A lot of corn is grown in Iowa.
Forming the passive voice
The passive voice is not a tense in English. Each
tense has its own passive voice which is created by using a form of the
auxiliary verb to be + V3 (past participle)
The passive voice in each tense:
Tense
|
Auxiliary verb + sample V3 (past participle)
|
Examples
|
Present simple
|
am, is, are + made
|
Wine is made from grapes.
|
Many cars are made in Japan.
|
||
Present progressive
|
am, is, are + being + sent
|
The document is being sent right now.
|
I am being sent to work in the London office.
|
||
Past simple
|
was, were + invited
|
John was invited to speak at the conference.
|
We were invited to Daniel and Mary’s wedding.
|
||
Past progressive
|
was, were + being + washed
|
The dog was being washed when I got home.
|
Their cars were being washed while they were in
the mall shopping.
|
||
Future (will)
|
will be + signed
|
The contract will be signed tomorrow.
|
The documents will all be signed by next week.
|
||
Future (going to)
|
am, is, are + going to be + built
|
A bridge is going to be built within the next
two years.
|
New houses are going to be built in our
neighborhood.
|
||
Present perfect
|
has, have + been + sold
|
That start-up has been sold for $5 million.
|
The rights to his book have been sold for
$250,000.
|
||
Past perfect
|
had + been + hired
|
The new manager had been hired before John left
the company.
|
All the employees had hired before the store
opened.
|
||
Future perfect
|
will + have been + finished
|
The car will have been loaded by the time he
gets home.
|
The crates will have been loaded by then.
|
||
Modals: can/could
|
can, could + be + issued
|
A passport can only be issued at the embassy.
|
He said the documents could be issued within
the week.
|
||
Modal: have to
|
have to, has to, had to + be + arranged
|
A babysitter has to be arranged for this
evening.
|
Joan’s travel plans have to be arranged by
December.
|
||
Modal: must
|
must + be + stopped
|
Criminals must be stopped before they commit
crimes.
|
All of the rules for passive negatives and
questions are the same as for the active voice.
Note: Verbs that have no object (no one to
“receive” the action) cannot be put into the passive, such as, arrive, come,
die, exist, go, happen, have, live, occur sleep, etc.
When do We use passive voice?
In
some sentences, passive voice can be perfectly acceptable. You might use it in
the following cases:
- The actor is unknown:
The cave paintings of Lascaux were made in the Upper Old
Stone Age. [We don't know who made them.]
- The actor is irrelevant:
An experimental solar power plant will be built in the
Australian desert. [We are not interested in who is building it.]
- You want to be vague about who is responsible:
Mistakes were made. [Common in bureaucratic writing!]
- You are talking about a general truth:
Rules are made to be broken. [By whomever, whenever.]
- You want to emphasize the person or thing acted on. For example, it may be your main topic:
Insulin
was first discovered in 1921 by researchers at the University of Toronto. It is
still the only treatment available for diabetes.
- You are writing in a scientific genre that traditionally relies on passive voice. Passive voice is often preferred in lab reports and scientific research papers, most notably in the Materials and Methods section:
The sodium hydroxide was dissolved in water. This solution
was then titrated with hydrochloric acid.
In these sentences you can count on your reader to know that
you are the one who did the dissolving and the titrating. The passive voice
places the emphasis on your experiment rather than on you.
Note: Over the past several years, there has been a movement
within many science disciplines away from passive voice. Scientists often now
prefer active voice in most parts of their published reports, even occasionally
using the subject "we" in the Materials and Methods section. Check
with your instructor or TA whether you can use the first person "I"
or "we" in your lab reports to help avoid the passive.
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