Master the Use of the Passive Voice and the Active Voice

Nearly every reputable grammar authority agrees that the passive voice has been too harshly condemned. That condemnation has influenced some writers to unwisely abandon the passive and use only the active voice. Ed Good observed, “These days the passive voice has a bad reputation.”1 But that bad reputation might have arisen out of misunderstanding. Bryan Garner, Ed Good, and many other top grammar authorities noted that many writers don’t understand the passive voice.

The table of contents for this article follows:

1. Understand the Active Voice
2. Understand the Passive Voice
3. Use the Active Voice Readily
4. Use the Passive Voice Purposefully (i.e., When to Use the Passive Voice)
5. Easily Fix Your Unrestrained Use of the Passive Voice (Separate Article)

Popular linguistic author Steven Pinker, in a speech at MIT, said that even top grammar authorities Strunk and White didn’t understand the passive voice, and he added that advice such as Strunk and White’s “‘Avoid the passive’ is bad advice”2 Linguist Geoffrey K. Pullum made a similar charge, arguing vehemently, “What concerns me is that the bias against the passive is being retailed by a pair of authors [Strunk and White] so grammatically clueless that they don’t know what is a passive construction and what isn’t. Of the four pairs of examples offered to show readers what to avoid and how to correct it, a staggering three out of the four are mistaken diagnoses.”3

The passive voice doesn’t elude only grammar authorities and many writers, even popular word processors and online editors have trouble identifying it. Grammarian Paula LaRocque observed, “Grammar checker software adds to the confusion. Those programs hunt for auxiliary verbs and when they find one, they warn: This sentence may be passive. In many cases, the sentence is not passive — it merely contains some form of the verb to be.”4

Agreeably, the active voice construction usually affords a cleaner style, but sentences in the passive “have their uses and are an important tool for the writer,”5 as The Oxford Companion to the English Language recognized (quoting Webster’s Dictionary of English Usage).

1. Understand the Active Voice

A clause or a sentence appears in the active voice when its subject performs the action of the main verb. For example, in the sentence “Lupita eats the apple,” the subject Lupita performs the action of the verb eats. Therefore, the sentence is in the active voice. Study these additional examples, all showing the active voice in different tenses (subject in bold type, active voice verb in italic):

• Tony attended the concert yesterday. (past)
• The plane is skidding off the runway. (present progressive)
• The ball falls to the ground. (present)
• He will arrive tomorrow. (future)

2. Understand the Passive Voice

We use the word get or a to be-verb (is, are, am, was, were, etc.) and a past participle of a transitive verb to form the passive voice. That is, get or to be-verb + past participle = passive voice when the subject is acted on (not the doer of the verbal activity). For example, in the sentence “The apple was eaten by Lupita,” note the use of was (a to be-verb) and the past participle eaten. We have two of the three things we need to form the passive voice so far (to be-verb and past participle). Next we need the subject to be the thing acted on. It shouldn’t be the doer or actor. The subject apple is not the doer of the verbal activity eaten. Instead, it is acted on; it is the receiver of the verbal activity: the apple was eaten. Note the apple did not do the eating; it was eaten by Lupita. Study these passive voice examples (note the passive verb — a to be-verb plus a past participle — in italic):

• The plane was moved by the pilot. (past)
• Officers are being called out in force. (present progressive)
• Many students are told to stay home. (present)
• Christianity has been practiced for thousands of years. (present prefect)
• Tomorrow, the game will be played. (future)
• Prajeet was being recommended at the time. (past progressive)

Quick Refresher on Past Participle (Essential to Understanding the Passive Voice)

Since we need a past participle to create the passive voice, we should understand the past participle. Let’s study it quickly. We form the past participle by combining a form of the verb have (have/has/had) and a past participle of a verb; indeed, every verb has a past participle. If you are not sure about what the past participle of a verb is, you should look it up in the dictionary. Most dictionaries give the past participle for each verb. Moreover, you can find the past participle of any verb by using this trick noted by Ed Good: “I have [verb].”6 Place any verb after “I have” and you will find the past participle. For instance, I have completed the job (completed is the past participle); I have run the marathon (run is the past participle); I have witnessed the event (witnessed is the past participle); I have not smoked a joint (smoked); I have swum a mile many times (swum); I have told lies (told).

Got that? Okay, let’s resume our passive voice discussion.

Digging Deeper into the Passive Voice

To really understand the passive voice, we must recognize two things: For a sentence to be in the passive voice, (a) it must have a past participle of a transitive verb (taken, spoken, witnessed, etc.), and (b) the subject of the verb must be the receiver — the item acted on — of the verbal activity, not the doer. For example, take this sentence, “Malcolm was cited for speeding.” First, do we have a past participle? Yes, cited. What is the subject of the sentence? Malcolm. And Malcolm is the subject of the verb was. Is that subject the thing or person acted on? Yes, Malcolm was cited. That example sentence is, therefore, in the passive voice.

If we don’t have a past participle of a transitive verb, the sentence cannot be in the passive voice. Consider these additional examples:

• It was a splendid wedding.
  (Active: there is no transitive verb.)
• Marvin was late yesterday.
  (Active: Marvin is the subject, and we have no transitive verb to form the passive voice.)
• Marvin was kissed by his wife.
  (Passive: Even though the person Marvin is the subject, he is the receiver — not the doer — of the verbal activity, kissed. He was kissed; he didn’t kiss anyone.)
• They are usually kicked out of the football match.
  (Passive: The subject “they” received the action kicked out; they did not do the kicking out.)

In each preceding example, we used a to be-verb (was, are). Yet, because the first two examples don’t have a transitive verb, neither could form the passive voice; therefore, they are both in the active voice. However, in the last two examples, we have a to be-verb in front of a transitive verb (was kissed in the first and are kicked in the second). In each of those cases, the subject of the sentence is not the doer of the verbal activity; rather, each subject appears on the receiving end of the verbal activity, hence the passive voice.

Passive Voice Formed with Infinitives and Participles

The infinitive form of a verb is simply the infinite verb preceded by the word to, as you may recall from Chapter 1, Section 1. For example, take these infinitives: to vote, to walk, to arrive, to become. We can also form the passive voice with infinitives. Thus: Some of us want to be hugged from time to time; To be remembered was her sole purpose in life. Similarly, we can also use participial phrases to form the passive: Johnny doesn’t want his family matters being discussed. Notice that even when we form the passive voice with an infinitive or a participial phrase, the main rule remains the same: We use a form of the verb to be (or get) plus a past participle to form the passive voice. Look at some of the different ways we can use different forms of the to be verb plus a past participle to form the passive voice:

Infinitive passive voice: Some of us want to be hugged.

Standard passive voice (past tense): Some of us were hugged.

Participial phrase passive voice: Some of us remember being hugged.

Not All To Be-Verb Constructions Form the Passive Voice

A big misconception is that all sentences with a to be-verb show the passive voice. This is not true. These sentences don’t show the passive voice: There were two students in the class; I am thirsty; Fatima was the loveliest of the group.

Passive Voice Without the To Be-Verb

We can form the passive voice without a to be-verb by using the word get. For example, They could get robbed; He gets fatigued easily.

And sometimes the to be-verb is implied and thus left out of the sentence: I am upset to hear a teacher discussed in such a manner; He doesn’t want his secrets discussed. Notice the to be-verb being is implied, in those last two examples. The full sentences would be thus: I am upset to hear a teacher being discussed in such a manner; He doesn’t want his secrets being discussed.

3. Use the Active Voice Readily

In most sentences, when you don’t need the passive voice for a particular purpose (see below for when we do need the passive voice) you should use the active voice. With the active voice, you will usually write clearer, shorter, more precise sentences.

Use the active voice the way you usually make purchases with your credit or debit card; readily use it most of the time. Every time you write a sentence or a clause, decide who is doing what to whom. Then, most of the time, place the main actor (the doer of the verbal activity) as the subject of the sentence or clause, thus forming the active voice.

4. Use the Passive Voice Purposefully

Use the passive voice the way you usually make purchases with cash; use it only when it is required or when you feel it is the best choice. As noted above, most often we don’t need the passive, yet in some situations it is the best solution and in other situations the only solution.

When to Use the Passive Voice

Consequently, we should use the passive voice when we need it, and we usually need it in these six situations, where we put the emphasis on the object — the thing or person acted on — not on the actor:

1. When the thing, topic, or person acted on is more important than the actor or doer: Yes, “how to raise funds” will be discussed at the conference.
2. When the identity of the actor is either unknown or purposely hidden (to absolve blame, to deflect responsibility, etc.): He was mugged; A mistake was made.
3. “When the affected entity ought to come earlier in the sentence (e.g., when it is the topic of the preceding discourse),” as Steven Pinker contributed in his MIT talk.7 Let’s expound on this: When discussing a particular topic in one sentence and we move to the next sentence, we should place that same topic early in the new sentence. This allows a seamless continuation or flow and keeps the discussion focused on the main topic. Sometimes the passive voice is necessary to accomplish this.
   
   Consider this example: Chelsea went to the gala with her new boyfriend, Alan. She was interviewed about a dozen times before she left. Notice Chelsea is the topic discussed in the first sentence. To continue discussing Chelsea in the second sentence, we place Chelsea (using the referential pronoun she) as the subject of the second sentence. But we need the passive voice to do it since Chelsea was interviewed; she is not the doer of the verbal activity.
4. When the actor is placed at the end of the sentence for special emphasis: The red ant, attempting to scuttle away, was suddenly trapped in the spider’s gossamer web. A web of deceit it was.
5. “When the passive simply sounds better,”8
   Indeed, sometimes the passive voice just sounds better. Ruminate on these two examples:
   Passive: Intricate decorations for the winter gala were hung from the ceiling. Active: The volunteers hung intricate decorations for the winter gala from the ceiling.
6. As we discussed in section 4, we can use the passive voice to avoid the singular they, the sexist he, and the cumbersome he or she. For instance, this passive voice sentence avoids using a gender-specific personal pronoun: Everyone is required to bring identification. The alternative, the active voice, would be this: Everyone must bring his [his or her] identification.

Do the top grammar authorities agree on these principles of the active voice and the passive voice?

New Fowler: ✓ Bryan Garner: ✓ Ed Good: ✓

Notes

1. C. Edward Good, A Grammar Book for You and I…Oops, Me!: All the Grammar You Need to Succeed in Life. 1st edn (2002), p. 226.
2. Nuclear Science and Engineering. Licensed by: MIT TechTV, ‘Communicating Science and Technology in the 21st Century: Steven Pinker’, (2012) < http://video.mit.edu/watch/communicating-science-and-technology-in-the-21st-century-steven-pinker-12644/ >.
3. Geoffrey K. Pullum, ’50 Years of Stupid Grammar Advice’, The Chronicle of Higher Education (2009) < http://chronicle.com/article/50-Years-of-Stupid-Grammar/25497 >.
4. Paula LaRocque, The Book on Writing: The Ultimate Guide to Writing Well (2003), p. 157.
5. Tom McArthur, The Oxford Companion to the English Language (1992), p. 755.
6. C. Edward Good, A Grammar Book for You and I…Oops, Me!: All the Grammar You Need to Succeed in Life. 1st edn (2002), p. 228.
7. Nuclear Science and Engineering. Licensed by: MIT TechTV, ‘Communicating Science and Technology in the 21st Century: Steven Pinker’, (2012) < http://video.mit.edu/watch/communicating-science-and-technology-in-the-21st-century-steven-pinker-12644/ >.
8. Bryan A. Garner, Garner’s Modern American Usage. 3rd edn (2009).