Passive Voice

 Definition of Passive Voice

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.

Passive voice is a grammatical construction (grammatical form) in which the subject sentence does not take action, but instead receives action (as a receiver of action ). The action is followed up by another agent (as a doer of action ) who can be mentioned or not. In contrast to the active voice , the subject is directly related to the verb by acting as the actor of the action. Active sentences may be changed to passive, especially active sentences that use a transitive verb (need to be followed by a direct object ).

Passive Voice function

In English lessons, passive voice is a sentence whose function is often underestimated. In fact, there are several functions of the passive voice that are crucial and cannot be replaced by the active voice. If you use active when passive is needed, you gonna embarrass yourself! You can see more about the passive voice function as follows.

To explain sentences where the subject is an inanimate object

The first function of the passive voice is to explain sentences whose subject cannot do a verb. Or in short, if the subject is an inanimate object. What is meant by inanimate objects here is not only physical objects, but also abstract objects, such as thoughts, values, feelings, and the like.

Example:

Those buildings were ruined by weather anomaly (passive voice)

The weather anomaly ruined those buildings (active voice)

To Describe an Event for which the Perpetrator is Unknown

The second function of the passive voice is to explain a sentence whose subject is not known with certainty. Due to this, the object of the final sentence has to be the subject in order for the sentence to be understood.

To describe an event whose object is more important than the subject

The third function of the passive voice is to describe events that focus on the object, not on the subject. This means that the object of the sentence is much more important to discuss than the subject.

This type of sentence can be found in scholarly presentations or other focused discussions. So for example, there is a meeting with the aim of reviewing "robots with human intelligence". So the focus of the meeting was a discussion of the object "robots with human intelligence".

To Describe Two Events in One Sentence

Well, here comes the passive voice function that people rarely talk about! The passive voice can be used in sentences that want to include two or more verbs. One goal: so that the sentence sounds varied. 

Passive Voice Formulas

The passive voice is formed from the auxiliary verb and past participle (verb-3).

Auxiliary verbs used in passive voice can be:

· primary auxiliary verb "be" (is, are, am, was, were),

· a combination of two primary auxiliary verbs (is / are being, was / were being, has / have been), or

· combination of primary auxiliary verb and modal auxiliary verb (will be, will have been)

The past participle used is a transitive verb . Past participles are obtained by adding -ed, -en, -d, -t, -n, or -ne to the base form, which are regular verbs . In the base form, it is an irregular verb , the past participle is inconsistent.

16 TENSES

1. Simple Present Tense

Aktif : S + do/does + V1

Pasif : S + to be (am, are, is) + V3 + by + O

example:

Aktif : Students speak English

Pasif : English is spoken by students

2.Present Continuous Tense

Aktif : S + to be (am, are, is) + V1-ing + O

Pasif : S + to be (am, are, is) + being + V3 + by + O

example :

Aktif : Students is speaking English

Pasif : English is being spoken by students

3. Present Perfect Tense

Aktif : S + have/has + V3 + O

Pasif : S + have/has + been + V3 + by + O

example :

Aktif : Students have spoken English

Pasif : English has been spoken by students

4. Present Perfect Continuous Tense

Aktif : S + have/has + been + V1-ing + O

Pasif : S + have/has + been + being + V3 + by + O

example :

Aktif : Students have been speaking English

Pasif : English has been being spoken by students

 5. Simple Past Tense

Aktif : S + V2 + O

Pasif : S + to be (was, were) + V3 + by + O

example :

Aktif : Students spoke English

Pasif : English was spoken by students

6. Past Continuous Tense

Aktif : S + to be (was, were) + V1-ing + O

Pasif : S + to be (was, were) + being + V3 + by + O

example :

Aktif : Students were speaking English

Pasif : English was being spoken by students

7. Past Perfect Tense

Aktif : S + had not + V3 + O

Pasif : S + had + been + V3 + by + O

example :

Aktif : Students had spoken English

Pasif : English had been spoken by students

8. Past Perfect Continuous Tense

Aktif : S + had + been + V1-ing + O

Pasif : S + had + been + being + V3 + by + O

example :

Aktif : Students had been speaking English

Pasif : English had been being spoken by students

9. Simple Future Tense

Aktif : S + will not + V1 + O

Pasif : S + will be + V3 + by + O

example :

Aktif : Students will speak English

Pasif : English will be spoken by students

10. Future Continuous Tense

Aktif : S + will + be + V1-ing + O

Pasif : S + will + be + being + V3 + by + O

example :

Aktif : Students will be speaking English

Pasif : English will be being spoken by students

11. Future Perfect Tense

Aktif : S + will + have + V3 + O

Pasif : S + will + have + been + V3 + by + O

example :

Aktif : Students will have spoken English

Pasif : English will have been spoken by students

12. Future Perfect Continuous Tense

Aktif : S + will + have + been + V1-ing + O

Pasif : S + will + have + been + being + V3 + by + O

example :

Aktif : Students will have been speaking English

Pasif : English will have been being spoken by students

13. Simple Future Past Tense

Aktif : S + would + V1 + O

Pasif : S + would + be + V3 + by + O

example :

Aktif : Students would speak English

Pasif : English would be spoken by students

14. Future Past Continuous Tense

Aktif : S + would + be + V1-ing + O

Pasif : S + would + be + being + V3 + by + O

example :

Aktif : Students would be speaking English

Pasif : English would be being spoken by students

15. Future Past Perfect Tense

Aktif : S + would + have + V3 + O

Pasif : S + would + have + been + V3 + by + O

example :

Aktif : Students would have spoken English

Pasif : English would have been spoken by students

16. Future Past Perfect Continuous Tense

Aktif : S + would + have + been + V1-ing + O

Pasif : S + would + have + been +being + V3 + by + O

example :

Aktif : Students would have been speaking English

Pasif : English would have been being spoken by students

Changing Active Voice to Passive Voice

Active or normal voice can be transformed into a passive voice (the process is called passivization ) with the following scheme.

The doer of action (actor action) expressed in by-phrase in the passive voice is usually not mentioned. The term construction of sentences in passive voice which the actor does not mention is short passive or agentless passive . The reasons are, among others, because the perpetrators of the action are unknown, unimportant or interesting, to avoid responsibility, or sentences constitute academic writing , especially those related to science (science).