English passive voice
Encyclopedia
The passive voice
is a grammatical construction
(a "voice"
) in which the subject
of a sentence or clause denotes the recipient of the action (the patient
) rather than the performer (the agent
). In the English language
, the English passive voice is formed with an auxiliary verb
(usually be or get) plus a participle (usually the past participle) of a transitive verb
.
For example, "Caesar was stabbed by Brutus" uses the passive voice. The subject denotes the person (Caesar) affected by the action of the verb. The counterpart to this in active voice is, "Brutus stabbed Caesar", in which the subject denotes the doer, or agent, Brutus.
A sentence featuring the passive voice is sometimes called a passive sentence, and a verb phrase in passive voice is sometimes called a passive verb. English differs from languages in which voice is indicated through a simple inflection
, since the English passive is periphrastic, composed of an auxiliary verb plus the past participle of the transitive verb.
Use of the English passive varies with writing style and field. Some style sheets discourage use of passive voice, while others encourage it. Although some purveyors of usage advice, including George Orwell
(see Politics and the English Language
, 1946) and William Strunk, Jr. and E. B. White
(see The Elements of Style
, 1919) discourage the English passive, its usefulness is recognized in cases where the theme (receiver of the action) is more important than the agent.
(1776), the bold text identifies passive verbs; italicized text identifies the one active verb (hold ) and the copulative verb are:
In this case, the agent ("the Creator") of the passive construction can be identified with a by phrase. When such a phrase is missing, the construction is an agentless passive. For example, "Caesar was stabbed" is a perfectly grammatical full sentence, in a way that "stabbed Caesar" and "Brutus stabbed" are not. Agentless passives are common in scientific writing
, where the agent may be irrelevant (e.g. "The mixture was heated to 300°C").
It is not the case, however, that any sentence in which the agent is unmentioned or marginalised is an example of the passive voice. Sentences like "There was a stabbing" or "A stabbing occurred" are not passive. In each case, both the subject and the agent are the gerund
"stabbing". See "Misapplication of the term," below for more discussion of this misconception.
, criticized this grammatical voice:
Two years later, in 1918, in The Elements of Style
Cornell University Professor of English William Strunk, Jr. warned against excessive use of the passive voice:
In 1926, in the authoritative A Dictionary of Modern English Usage (1926), Henry W. Fowler recommended against transforming active voice forms into passive voice forms, because doing so "sometimes leads to bad grammar, false idiom
, or clumsiness".
In 1946, in the essay "Politics and the English Language" (1946), George Orwell
recommended the active voice as an elementary principle of composition: "Never use the passive where you can use the active."
The Columbia Guide to Standard American English (1993) stated that:
Krista Ratcliffe notes the use of passives as an example of the role of grammar as "a link between words and magical conjuring [...]: passive voice mystifies accountability by erasing who or what performs an action [...].
For example, despite Orwell's advice to avoid the passive, his "Politics and the English Language" (1946) employs passive voice for about 20 percent of its constructions. By comparison, a statistical study found about 13 percent passive constructions in newspapers and magazines.
Passive writing is not necessarily slack and indirect. Many famously vigorous passages use the passive voice, as in these examples:
Merriam–Webster's Dictionary of English Usage (1994) recommends the passive voice when identifying the object (receiver) of the action is more important than the subject (agent), and when the agent is unknown, unimportant, or not worth mentioning:
The principal criticism against the passive voice is its potential for evasion of responsibility. This is because a passive clause may omit the agent even where it is important:
(See weasel word
s.) However, the passive can also be used to emphasize the agent, and it may be better for that role than the active voice, because the end of a clause is the ideal place to put something you wish to emphasize:
Similarly, the passive may be useful when modifying the agent, as heavily modified noun phrases also tend to occur last in a clause:
, rather than the agent
. This properly occurs when the patient is the topic of the sentence. However, the passive voice can also be used when the focus is on the agent.
with a direct object to a corresponding clause where the direct object has become the subject. For example:
Here threw is a transitive verb with John as its subject and the ball as its direct object. If we recast the verb in the passive voice (was thrown), then the ball becomes the subject (it is "promoted" to the subject position) and John disappears:
The original "demoted" subject can typically be re-inserted using the preposition by.
An example of the canonical use of the get passive arises from the recasting of the clause "The ball hit Bob":
In the active form, gave is the verb; John is its subject, Mary its indirect object, and a book its direct object. In the passive forms, the indirect object has been promoted and the direct object has been left in place. (In "A book was given to Mary", the direct object is promoted and the indirect object left in place. In this respect, English resembles dechticaetiative language
s.)
It is also possible, in some cases, to promote the object of a preposition:
In the passive form here, the preposition is "stranded
"; that is, it is not followed by an object.
that serves as a direct object. In this case, however, the clause typically does not change its position in the sentence, and an expletive
it takes the normal subject position:
This sentence has two different meanings, roughly the following:
The former meaning represents the canonical, eventive passive; the latter, the stative passive. (The terms eventive and stative/resultative refer to the tendencies of these forms to describe events and resultant states, respectively. The terms can be misleading, however, as the canonical passive of a stative verb is not a stative passive, even though it describes a state.)
Some verbs do not form stative passives. In some cases, this is because distinct adjective
s exist for this purpose, such as with the verb open:
from a participle) is used predicatively (see Adjective
). For example:
Here, relieved is an ordinary adjective, though it derives from the past participle of relieve, and that past participle may be used in canonical passives:
In some cases, the line between an adjectival passive and a stative passive may be unclear, as in:
(The asterisk here denotes an ungrammatical construction.) Similarly:
In both of these examples, the active counterpart was once possible, but has fallen out of use.
—to take an infinitive
complement that is also in the passive voice:
Commonly, either or both verbs may be moved into the active voice:
In some cases, a similar construction may occur with a verb that is not object-raising in the active voice:
(The question mark here denotes a questionably-grammatical construction.) In this example, the object of the infinitive has been promoted to the subject of the main verb, and both the infinitive and the main verb have been moved to the passive voice. The American Heritage Book of English Usage declares this unacceptable, but it is nonetheless recommended in a variety of contexts.
Here "looking at by a specialist" is a noun phrase serving as the object of the active verb "needs"; in the noun phrase the implied subject is "rash", which is the patient of the verb "look at", and the agent "specialist" appears in a prepositional "by" phrase.
; bold text identifies the mis-identified passive voice verbs:
The intransitive verbs would end and began are in the active voice. Although the speaker uses the words in a manner that subtly diverts responsibility from him, this is not accomplished by use of passive voice.
In The Elements of Style
, Strunk and White mis-apply the passive voice term to several active voice constructions; Prof. Geoffrey Pullum
writes:
Passive voice
Passive voice is a grammatical voice common in many of the world's languages. Passive is used in a clause whose subject expresses the theme or patient of the main verb. That is, the subject undergoes an action or has its state changed. A sentence whose theme is marked as grammatical subject is...
is a grammatical construction
Grammar
In linguistics, grammar is the set of structural rules that govern the composition of clauses, phrases, and words in any given natural language. The term refers also to the study of such rules, and this field includes morphology, syntax, and phonology, often complemented by phonetics, semantics,...
(a "voice"
Voice (grammar)
In grammar, the voice of a verb describes the relationship between the action that the verb expresses and the participants identified by its arguments . When the subject is the agent or doer of the action, the verb is in the active voice...
) in which the subject
Subject (grammar)
The subject is one of the two main constituents of a clause, according to a tradition that can be tracked back to Aristotle and that is associated with phrase structure grammars; the other constituent is the predicate. According to another tradition, i.e...
of a sentence or clause denotes the recipient of the action (the patient
Patient (grammar)
In linguistics, a grammatical patient, also called the target or undergoer, is the participant of a situation upon whom an action is carried out. A patient as differentiated from a theme must undergo a change in state. A theme is denoted by a stative verb, where a patient is denoted by a dynamic...
) rather than the performer (the agent
Agent (grammar)
In linguistics, a grammatical agent is the cause or initiator of an event. Agent is the name of the thematic role...
). In the English language
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
, the English passive voice is formed with an auxiliary verb
Auxiliary verb
In linguistics, an auxiliary verb is a verb that gives further semantic or syntactic information about a main or full verb. In English, the extra meaning provided by an auxiliary verb alters the basic meaning of the main verb to make it have one or more of the following functions: passive voice,...
(usually be or get) plus a participle (usually the past participle) of a transitive verb
Transitive verb
In syntax, a transitive verb is a verb that requires both a direct subject and one or more objects. The term is used to contrast intransitive verbs, which do not have objects.-Examples:Some examples of sentences with transitive verbs:...
.
For example, "Caesar was stabbed by Brutus" uses the passive voice. The subject denotes the person (Caesar) affected by the action of the verb. The counterpart to this in active voice is, "Brutus stabbed Caesar", in which the subject denotes the doer, or agent, Brutus.
A sentence featuring the passive voice is sometimes called a passive sentence, and a verb phrase in passive voice is sometimes called a passive verb. English differs from languages in which voice is indicated through a simple inflection
Inflection
In grammar, inflection or inflexion is the modification of a word to express different grammatical categories such as tense, grammatical mood, grammatical voice, aspect, person, number, gender and case...
, since the English passive is periphrastic, composed of an auxiliary verb plus the past participle of the transitive verb.
Use of the English passive varies with writing style and field. Some style sheets discourage use of passive voice, while others encourage it. Although some purveyors of usage advice, including George Orwell
George Orwell
Eric Arthur Blair , better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English author and journalist...
(see Politics and the English Language
Politics and the English Language
"Politics and the English Language" is an essay by George Orwell criticizing "ugly and inaccurate" contemporary written English.Orwell said that political prose was formed "to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind." Orwell believed...
, 1946) and William Strunk, Jr. and E. B. White
E. B. White
Elwyn Brooks White , usually known as E. B. White, was an American writer. A long-time contributor to The New Yorker magazine, he also wrote many famous books for both adults and children, such as the popular Charlotte's Web and Stuart Little, and co-authored a widely used writing guide, The...
(see The Elements of Style
The Elements of Style
The Elements of Style , also known as Strunk & White, by William Strunk, Jr. and E. B. White, is a prescriptive American English writing style guide comprising eight "elementary rules of usage", ten "elementary principles of composition", "a few matters of form", a list of forty-nine "words and...
, 1919) discourage the English passive, its usefulness is recognized in cases where the theme (receiver of the action) is more important than the agent.
Identifying the English passive
In the following excerpt from the 18th-century United States Declaration of IndependenceUnited States Declaration of Independence
The Declaration of Independence was a statement adopted by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, which announced that the thirteen American colonies then at war with Great Britain regarded themselves as independent states, and no longer a part of the British Empire. John Adams put forth a...
(1776), the bold text identifies passive verbs; italicized text identifies the one active verb (hold ) and the copulative verb are:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
In this case, the agent ("the Creator") of the passive construction can be identified with a by phrase. When such a phrase is missing, the construction is an agentless passive. For example, "Caesar was stabbed" is a perfectly grammatical full sentence, in a way that "stabbed Caesar" and "Brutus stabbed" are not. Agentless passives are common in scientific writing
Scientific writing
-History:Scientific writing in English started in the 14th century.The Royal Society established good practice for scientific writing. Founder member Thomas Sprat wrote on the importance of plain and accurate description rather than rhetorical flourishes in his History of the Royal Society of London...
, where the agent may be irrelevant (e.g. "The mixture was heated to 300°C").
It is not the case, however, that any sentence in which the agent is unmentioned or marginalised is an example of the passive voice. Sentences like "There was a stabbing" or "A stabbing occurred" are not passive. In each case, both the subject and the agent are the gerund
Gerund
In linguistics* As applied to English, it refers to the usage of a verb as a noun ....
"stabbing". See "Misapplication of the term," below for more discussion of this misconception.
Against the passive voice
Many language critics and language-usage manuals discourage use of the passive voice. This advice is not usually found in older guides, emerging only in the first half of the twentieth century. In 1916, the British writer Arthur Quiller-CouchArthur Quiller-Couch
Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch was a Cornish writer, who published under the pen name of Q. He is primarily remembered for the monumental Oxford Book Of English Verse 1250–1900 , and for his literary criticism...
, criticized this grammatical voice:
Generally, use transitive verbTransitive verbIn syntax, a transitive verb is a verb that requires both a direct subject and one or more objects. The term is used to contrast intransitive verbs, which do not have objects.-Examples:Some examples of sentences with transitive verbs:...
s, that strike their object; and use them in the active voice, eschewing the stationary passive, with its little auxiliary its’s and was’s, and its participles getting into the light of your adjectives, which should be few. For, as a rough law, by his use of the straight verb and by his economy of adjectives you can tell a man’s style, if it be masculine or neuter, writing or 'composition'.
Two years later, in 1918, in The Elements of Style
The Elements of Style
The Elements of Style , also known as Strunk & White, by William Strunk, Jr. and E. B. White, is a prescriptive American English writing style guide comprising eight "elementary rules of usage", ten "elementary principles of composition", "a few matters of form", a list of forty-nine "words and...
Cornell University Professor of English William Strunk, Jr. warned against excessive use of the passive voice:
The active voice is usually more direct and vigorous than the passive . . . This rule does not, of course, mean that the writer should entirely discard the passive voice, which is frequently convenient and sometimes necessary . . . The need to make a particular word the subject of the sentence will often . . . determine which voice is to be used. The habitual use of the active voice, however, makes for forcible writing. This is true not only in narrative concerned principally with action, but in writing of any kind. Many a tame sentence of description or exposition can be made lively and emphatic by substituting a transitive in the active voice for some such perfunctory expression as there is or could be heard.
In 1926, in the authoritative A Dictionary of Modern English Usage (1926), Henry W. Fowler recommended against transforming active voice forms into passive voice forms, because doing so "sometimes leads to bad grammar, false idiom
Idiom
Idiom is an expression, word, or phrase that has a figurative meaning that is comprehended in regard to a common use of that expression that is separate from the literal meaning or definition of the words of which it is made...
, or clumsiness".
In 1946, in the essay "Politics and the English Language" (1946), George Orwell
George Orwell
Eric Arthur Blair , better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English author and journalist...
recommended the active voice as an elementary principle of composition: "Never use the passive where you can use the active."
The Columbia Guide to Standard American English (1993) stated that:
Active voice makes subjects do something (to something); passive voice permits subjects to have something done to them (by someone or something). Some argue that active voice is more muscular, direct, and succinct, passive voice flabbier, more indirect, and wordier. If you want your words to seem impersonal, indirect, and noncommittal, passive is the choice, but otherwise, active voice is almost invariably likely to prove more effective.
Krista Ratcliffe notes the use of passives as an example of the role of grammar as "a link between words and magical conjuring [...]: passive voice mystifies accountability by erasing who or what performs an action [...].
For the passive voice
Jan Freeman, a reporter for The Boston Globe, said that the passive voice does have its uses, and that "all good writers use the passive voice".For example, despite Orwell's advice to avoid the passive, his "Politics and the English Language" (1946) employs passive voice for about 20 percent of its constructions. By comparison, a statistical study found about 13 percent passive constructions in newspapers and magazines.
Passive writing is not necessarily slack and indirect. Many famously vigorous passages use the passive voice, as in these examples:
- Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low; and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain. (King James Bible, Isaiah 40:4)
- Now is the winter of our discontent / Made glorious summer by this sun of York. (Shakespeare's Richard IIIRichard III (play)Richard III is a history play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in approximately 1591. It depicts the Machiavellian rise to power and subsequent short reign of Richard III of England. The play is grouped among the histories in the First Folio and is most often classified...
, I.1, ll. 1–2) - For of those to whom much is given, much is required. (John F. Kennedy'sJohn F. KennedyJohn Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....
quotation of Luke 12:48 in his address to the Massachusetts legislature, 9 January 1961.) - Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few. (Winston ChurchillWinston ChurchillSir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, was a predominantly Conservative British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century and served as Prime Minister twice...
addressing the House of Commons, 20 August 1940.)
Merriam–Webster's Dictionary of English Usage (1994) recommends the passive voice when identifying the object (receiver) of the action is more important than the subject (agent), and when the agent is unknown, unimportant, or not worth mentioning:
- The child was struck by the car.
- The store was robbed last night.
- Plows should not be kept in the garage.
- Kennedy was elected president.
The principal criticism against the passive voice is its potential for evasion of responsibility. This is because a passive clause may omit the agent even where it is important:
- We had hoped to report on this problem, but the data were inadvertently deleted from our files.
(See weasel word
Weasel word
A weasel word is an informal term for equivocating words and phrases aimed at creating an impression that something specific and meaningful has been said, when in fact only a vague or ambiguous claim, or even a refutation has been communicated.For example, an advertisement may use a weasel phrase...
s.) However, the passive can also be used to emphasize the agent, and it may be better for that role than the active voice, because the end of a clause is the ideal place to put something you wish to emphasize:
- Don't you see? The patient was murdered by his own doctor!
Similarly, the passive may be useful when modifying the agent, as heavily modified noun phrases also tend to occur last in a clause:
- The breakthrough was achieved by Burlingame and Evans, two researchers in the university's genetic engineering lab.
Passive constructions
In general, the passive voice is used to place focus on the grammatical patientPatient (grammar)
In linguistics, a grammatical patient, also called the target or undergoer, is the participant of a situation upon whom an action is carried out. A patient as differentiated from a theme must undergo a change in state. A theme is denoted by a stative verb, where a patient is denoted by a dynamic...
, rather than the agent
Agent (grammar)
In linguistics, a grammatical agent is the cause or initiator of an event. Agent is the name of the thematic role...
. This properly occurs when the patient is the topic of the sentence. However, the passive voice can also be used when the focus is on the agent.
Canonical passives
Passive constructions have a range of meanings and uses. The canonical use is to map a clauseClause
In grammar, a clause is the smallest grammatical unit that can express a complete proposition. In some languages it may be a pair or group of words that consists of a subject and a predicate, although in other languages in certain clauses the subject may not appear explicitly as a noun phrase,...
with a direct object to a corresponding clause where the direct object has become the subject. For example:
- John threw the ball.
Here threw is a transitive verb with John as its subject and the ball as its direct object. If we recast the verb in the passive voice (was thrown), then the ball becomes the subject (it is "promoted" to the subject position) and John disappears:
- The ball was thrown.
The original "demoted" subject can typically be re-inserted using the preposition by.
- The ball was thrown by John.
An example of the canonical use of the get passive arises from the recasting of the clause "The ball hit Bob":
- Bob got hit by the ball.
Promotion of other objects
One non-canonical use of English's passive is to promote an object other than a direct object. It is usually possible in English to promote indirect objects as well. For example:- John gave Mary a book. → Mary was given a book.
- John gave Mary a book. → Mary was given a book by John.
In the active form, gave is the verb; John is its subject, Mary its indirect object, and a book its direct object. In the passive forms, the indirect object has been promoted and the direct object has been left in place. (In "A book was given to Mary", the direct object is promoted and the indirect object left in place. In this respect, English resembles dechticaetiative language
Dechticaetiative language
A dechticaetiative language is a language in which the indirect objects of ditransitive verbs are treated like the direct objects of monotransitive verbs. Etymologically, the first morpheme of the term comes from Greek dekhomai "to take, receive"; the second is obscure, but it is remotely possible...
s.)
It is also possible, in some cases, to promote the object of a preposition:
- They talked about the problem. → The problem was talked about.
In the passive form here, the preposition is "stranded
Preposition stranding
Preposition stranding, sometimes called P-stranding, is the syntactic construction in which a preposition with an object occurs somewhere other than immediately adjacent to its object...
"; that is, it is not followed by an object.
Promotion of content clauses
It is possible to promote a content clauseContent clause
In grammar, a content clause is a subordinate clause that provides content implied by, or commented upon by, its main clause. The term was coined by Otto Jespersen...
that serves as a direct object. In this case, however, the clause typically does not change its position in the sentence, and an expletive
Syntactic expletive
Syntactic expletives are words that perform a syntactic role but contribute nothing to meaning. Expletive subjects are part of the grammar of many non-pro-drop languages such as English, whose clauses normally require overt provision of subject even when the subject can be pragmatically inferred...
it takes the normal subject position:
- They say that he left. → It is said that he left.
Stative passives
The passives described above are all eventive (or dynamic) passives. Stative (or static, or resultative) passives also exist in English; rather than describing an action, they describe the result of an action. English does not usually distinguish between the two. For example:- The window was broken.
This sentence has two different meanings, roughly the following:
- [Someone] broke the window.
- The window was not intact.
The former meaning represents the canonical, eventive passive; the latter, the stative passive. (The terms eventive and stative/resultative refer to the tendencies of these forms to describe events and resultant states, respectively. The terms can be misleading, however, as the canonical passive of a stative verb is not a stative passive, even though it describes a state.)
Some verbs do not form stative passives. In some cases, this is because distinct adjective
Adjective
In grammar, an adjective is a 'describing' word; the main syntactic role of which is to qualify a noun or noun phrase, giving more information about the object signified....
s exist for this purpose, such as with the verb open:
- The door was opened. → [Someone] opened the door.
- The door was open. → The door was in the open state.
Adjectival passives
Adjectival passives are not true passives; they occur when a participial adjective (an adjective derivedDerivation (linguistics)
In linguistics, derivation is the process of forming a new word on the basis of an existing word, e.g. happi-ness and un-happy from happy, or determination from determine...
from a participle) is used predicatively (see Adjective
Adjective
In grammar, an adjective is a 'describing' word; the main syntactic role of which is to qualify a noun or noun phrase, giving more information about the object signified....
). For example:
- She was relieved to find her car.
Here, relieved is an ordinary adjective, though it derives from the past participle of relieve, and that past participle may be used in canonical passives:
- He was relieved of duty.
In some cases, the line between an adjectival passive and a stative passive may be unclear, as in:
- The door was closed. (= The door was closed by [someone] = [Someone] closed the door OR = The door was not open.)
Passives without active counterparts
In a few cases, passive constructions retain all the sense of the passive voice, but do not have immediate active counterparts. For example:- He was rumored to be a war veteran. ← *[Someone] rumored him to be a war veteran.
(The asterisk here denotes an ungrammatical construction.) Similarly:
- It was rumored that he was a war veteran. ← *[Someone] rumored that he was a war veteran.
In both of these examples, the active counterpart was once possible, but has fallen out of use.
Double passives
It is possible but it is not necesary for a verb in the passive voice—especially an object-raising verbRaising verb
In linguistics, raising is a form of argument control in which an argument that belongs semantically to a subordinate clause is realized syntactically as a constituent of a higher clause...
—to take an infinitive
Infinitive
In grammar, infinitive is the name for certain verb forms that exist in many languages. In the usual description of English, the infinitive of a verb is its basic form with or without the particle to: therefore, do and to do, be and to be, and so on are infinitives...
complement that is also in the passive voice:
- The project is expected to be completed in the next year.
Commonly, either or both verbs may be moved into the active voice:
- [Someone] expects the project to be completed in the next year.
- [Someone] is expected to complete the project in the next year.
- [Someone] expects [someone] to complete the project in the next year.
In some cases, a similar construction may occur with a verb that is not object-raising in the active voice:
- ?The project will be attempted to be completed in the next year. ← *[Someone] will attempt the project to be completed in the next year. ← [Someone] will attempt to complete the project in the next year.
(The question mark here denotes a questionably-grammatical construction.) In this example, the object of the infinitive has been promoted to the subject of the main verb, and both the infinitive and the main verb have been moved to the passive voice. The American Heritage Book of English Usage declares this unacceptable, but it is nonetheless recommended in a variety of contexts.
Passives without a past participle
Rarely, the passive voice can be expressed without the use of the past participle, as in- That rash needs looking at by a specialist.
Here "looking at by a specialist" is a noun phrase serving as the object of the active verb "needs"; in the noun phrase the implied subject is "rash", which is the patient of the verb "look at", and the agent "specialist" appears in a prepositional "by" phrase.
Misapplication of the term
Occasionally, writers misapply the term passive voice to sentences that do not identify the actor. For example, this extract from The New Yorker magazine refers to the American embezzler Bernard MadoffBernard Madoff
Bernard Lawrence "Bernie" Madoff is a former American businessman, stockbroker, investment advisor, and financier. He is the former non-executive chairman of the NASDAQ stock market, and the admitted operator of a Ponzi scheme that is considered to be the largest financial fraud in U.S...
; bold text identifies the mis-identified passive voice verbs:
Two sentences later, Madoff said, "When I began the Ponzi scheme, I believed it would end shortly, and I would be able to extricate myself, and my clients, from the scheme." As he read this, he betrayed no sense of how absurd it was to use the passive voice in regard to his scheme, as if it were a spell of bad weather that had descended on him . . . In most of the rest of the statement, one not only heard the aggrieved passive voice, but felt the hand of a lawyer: "To the best of my recollection, my fraud began in the early nineteen-nineties."
The intransitive verbs would end and began are in the active voice. Although the speaker uses the words in a manner that subtly diverts responsibility from him, this is not accomplished by use of passive voice.
In The Elements of Style
The Elements of Style
The Elements of Style , also known as Strunk & White, by William Strunk, Jr. and E. B. White, is a prescriptive American English writing style guide comprising eight "elementary rules of usage", ten "elementary principles of composition", "a few matters of form", a list of forty-nine "words and...
, Strunk and White mis-apply the passive voice term to several active voice constructions; Prof. Geoffrey Pullum
Geoffrey Pullum
Geoffrey Keith "Geoff" Pullum is a British-American linguist specialising in the study of English. , he is Professor of General Linguistics at the University of Edinburgh....
writes:
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. "At dawn the crowing of a rooster could be heard" is correctly identified as a passive clause, but the other three are all errors:
- "There were a great number of dead leaves lying on the ground" has no sign of the passive in it anywhere.
- "It was not long before she was very sorry that she had said what she had", also contains nothing that is even reminiscent of the passive construction.
- "The reason that he left college was that his health became impaired", is presumably fingered as passive because of impaired, but that’s a mistake. It’s an adjective here.
See also
- Ergative verbErgative verbIn linguistics, an ergative verb is a verb that can be either transitive or intransitive, and whose subject when intransitive corresponds to its direct object when transitive.-In English:...
- Existential clauseExistential clauseExistential clauses are clauses that indicate only an existence. In English, they are formed with the dummy subject construction with "there", e.g. "There are boys in the yard". Many languages do not require a dummy subject, e.g. Finnish, where the sentence Pihalla on poikia is literally "On the...
- List of common English usage misconceptions
- Mediopassive voiceMediopassive voiceThe mediopassive voice is a grammatical voice which subsumes the meanings of both the middle voice and the passive voice.Languages of the Indo-European family typically have two or three voices of the three: active, middle, and passive. "Mediopassive" may be used to describe a category that covers...
- Reflexive verbReflexive verbIn grammar, a reflexive verb is a verb whose semantic agent and patient are the same. For example, the English verb to perjure is reflexive, since one can only perjure oneself...