passive voice

 

ECLIPSES AND SNOWFLAKES

PASSISVE VOICE

Passive voice uses past particle after the auxiliary verb ( is / am/ are / was/ were ). Passive voice is formed by moving the object into the postition of subject and combining the “ verb to be “ and “ past participle ‘

Example :

1.       Active voice : the author presents the story with careful choice of language.

Passive voice      : the story is presented by the author with careful choice of language

2.       Active voice        : my brother writes a story about my family

Passive voice      ; a story about my family is written by my brother

 

In active voce, the subject is dong an action. Meanwhile in passive voce, the subject in’t doing anything. The subject becomes the rcipient of an action.

When writing a scientific text , we often use wods such as “ say “, “assume”, “ believe’, “ “claim”, “predict “. Etc. Those words can also be used in passive forms.

Example ;

1.       Active voice ; a scientist claims that only 66 % of geese in this area fly to south for the winter.

Pssive voice : it is claimed that only 66 % of geese in this area fly to south for winter

2.       Active voice : the writer believes that children’s literature is not innocent

Passive voice :it is belived that children’s literature is not innocent.  

Passive voice is used :

1.        when the agent is unknown, unimportant, or obvious in the context

2.       To make it more formsl and polite

3.       When the action is more important than the agent

4.       To emphasize the agent

The formular of passive voice based on tenses

Tenses	Active Sentences	Passive sentences
Simple present tense	Soemebody cleans this classroom everyday	This classroom is clened everyday
Past tense	Somebody cleaned this classroom yesterday	This classroom was cleaned yesterday
Present perfect	This room looks nice. Somebody has cleaned it.	This room looks nice. It has been cleaned
Past perfect	This room looked nice. Soembody had cleaned it.	This room locked nice. It had been cleaned
Present continuous	Somebody is cleaning the classroom now	The classroom is being cleaned now
Past continuous	Somebody was cleaning the classroom when I left	The room was being cleaned when i left
Future simple	I will cook a cake tomorrow	The cake will be cooked tomorrow
Future perfect	I will have cooked a cake	The cake will have been cooked