Passive voice( rất đầy đủ)

The Formation of the Indicative Mood of the Passive Voice Present Continuous am/is/are being past participle Present Perfect Continuous** have/has been being past participle Past Perfect

CHAPTER 12 THE PASSIVE VOICE

1 Use of the passive voice

As explained in the preceding chapter, the Active Voice of a verb is used when the subject of the verb refers to the person or thing performing the action described by the verb

In contrast, the Passive Voice of a verb is used when the subject of the verb refers to

the person or thing receiving the action described by the verb Only a verb which can take an object can be put into the Passive Voice

The Passive Voice is more commonly used in English than it is in other European languages such as German or French As well as being used in everyday English, the Passive Voice is used extensively in official documents and scientific papers

In the following examples, the verbs in the Passive Voice are underlined

e.g The ball was struck by the boy

Gold has been found by the explorers

In these examples, the verbs was struck and has been found are in the Passive Voice The subjects ball and gold refer to things receiving the actions described by the verbs.

2 Formation of the indicative mood of the passive voice

For every tense in the Active Voice, there is a corresponding tense in the Passive

Voice In the Passive Voice, the verb to be acts as an auxiliary The Passive Voice tenses of an English verb are formed from the corresponding conjugations of to be,

followed by the past participle of the verb

a The simple present indicative

For instance, the Simple Present Indicative of to be, and the Simple Present Indicative

of the Passive Voice of the verb to show are conjugated as follows:

Simple Present Indicative Simple Present Indicative

b The other indicative tenses

Similarly, the other Indicative tenses of the Passive Voice of the verb to show are conjugated as indicated in the following table The corresponding tenses of the verbto

be are included for purposes of comparison.

The verb To Be compared with the Passive Voice of the verb To Show

Present Continuous Present Continuous

they are being they are being shown

they have been they have been shown

Present Perfect Continuous Present Perfect Continuous

have been being I have been being shown

you have been being you have been being shown

he has been being he has been being shown

she has been being she has been being shown

it has been being it has been being shown

we have been being we have been being shown

they have been being they have been being shown

they were being they were being shown

Past Perfect Continuous Past Perfect Continuous

I had been being I had been being shown

you had been being you had been being shown

he had been being he had been being shown

she had been being she had been being shown

it had been being it had been being shown

we had been being we had been being shown

they had been being they had been being shown

I will (shall) be I will (shall) be shown

we will (shall) be we will (shall) be shown

I will (shall) be being I will (shall) be being shown

you will be being you will be being shown

he will be being he will be being shown

she will be being she will be being shown

it will be being it will be being shown

we will (shall) be being we will (shall) be being shown they will be being they will be being shown

I will (shall) have been I will (shall) have been shown you will have been you will have been shown

he will have been he will have been shown

she will have been she will have been shown

it will have been it will have been shown

we will (shall) have been we will (shall) have been shown they will have been they will have been shown

Future Perfect Continuous Future Perfect Continuous

I will (shall) have been being I will (shall) have been being shown you will have been being you will have been being shown

he will have been being he will have been being shown

she will have been being she will have been being shown

It will have been being it will have been being shown

we will (shall) have been being we will (shall) have been being shown

they will have been being they will have been being shown

c Summary of the formation of the indicative tenses of the passive voice

The following table summarizes the formation of the Indicative tenses of the Passive Voice

The Formation of the Indicative Mood of the Passive Voice

Present Continuous am/is/are being past participle

Present Perfect Continuous** have/has been being past participle

Past Perfect Continuous** had been being past participle

Future Continuous** will (shall) be being past participle

Future Perfect will (shall) have been past participle

Future Perfect Continuous** will (shall) have been being past participle

* The other modal auxiliaries form conjugations in the same way as shown

for will and shall.

** The Present Perfect Continuous, Past Perfect Continuous, Future Continuous, and Future Perfect Continuous tenses of the Passive Voice are cumbersome, and are rarely used Only the more commonly used tenses of the Passive Voice will be discussed below

3 Questions and negative statements

As is the case for other English conjugations, verbs in the Passive Voice form

questions and negative statements using the first auxiliary

a Questions

To form a question, the first auxiliary is placed before the subject For example:

You were shown the sights Were you shown the sights?

She is being shown the sights Is she being shown the sights?

He will have been shown the sights Will he have been shown the sights?

We should be shown the sights Should we be shown the sights?

See Exercise 1

b Negative statements

To form a negative statement, the word not is placed after the first auxiliary For

example:

Negative Statements

You were not shown the sights

She is not being shown the sights

He will not have been shown the sights

We should not be shown the sights

See Exercise 2

c Negative questions

To form a negative question, the first auxiliary is placed before the subject, and the

word not is placed after the subject However, when contractions are used, the

contracted form of not follows immediately after the auxiliary Contractions are often

used in spoken English For example:

Without Contractions

Were you not shown the sights?

Is she not being shown the sights?

Will he not have been shown the sights?

Should we not be shown the sights?

With Contractions

Weren't you shown the sights?

Isn't she being shown the sights?

Won't he have been shown the sights?

Shouldn't we be shown the sights?

See Exercise 3

4 Changing the voice of a verb

When the verb of a sentence is changed from the Active Voice to the Passive Voice and the other words in the sentence are left unaltered, a change in meaning results In the following examples, the verbs are underlined

e.g Active Voice: He is driving to the airport

Passive Voice: He is being driven to the airport

The person referred to by the subject of the first sentence is behaving actively; the person is doing the driving The person referred to by the subject of the second

sentence is behaving passively; someone else is doing the driving

Using the first person singular of the verb to show as an example, the following table

compares the most commonly used tenses of the Indicative Mood of the Passive Voice with the corresponding tenses of the Active Voice

Negative Statement: I do not show I am not shown

Present Continuous I am showing I am being shown

Present Perfect I have shown I have been shown

Negative Statement: I did not show I was not shown

Past Continuous I was showing I was being shown

Past Perfect I had shown I had been shown

Simple Future I will show I will be shown

Future Perfect I will have shown I will have been shown

Simple, with would I would show I would be shown

Perfect, with would I would have shown I would have been shown

See Exercises 4 and 5

5 Changing the voice of a verb while preserving the meaning of a sentence

In order to preserve the meaning of a sentence when the Voice of the verb is changed,

it is necessary to alter the order of the words in the sentence

a Changing the verb from the active voice to the passive voice

When a verb which takes an object is changed from the Active Voice to the Passive Voice, in order to preserve the meaning of the sentence, the former object becomes the

subject of the verb, and the former subject may be preceded by the preposition by, and

placed after the verb In the following examples, the verbs are underlined, and the direct objects of the verbs are printed in bold type

For instance, in the sentence:

The wind is rippling the water.

the verb is rippling has the subject wind and takes the object water When the verb is

put into the Passive Voice and the meaning of the sentence is preserved, the former

object, water, becomes the subject of the verb, and the former subject, wind, becomes the object of the preposition by, as follows:

The water is being rippled by the wind.

Other examples are:

Active: The squirrel ate the nut.

Passive: The nut was eaten by the squirrel

Active: The child will open the parcel.

Passive: The parcel will be opened by the child

In the first pair of examples, the verb ate, in the Active Voice, is changed to was eaten, in the Passive Voice In order to preserve the meaning, nut, the object of the

verb in the Active Voice, becomes the subject of the verb in the Passive Voice, and is

placed before the verb; and squirrel, the subject of the verb in the Active Voice,

becomes the object of the preposition by, and is placed after the verb.

Similarly, in the second pair of examples, parcel, the object of the verb in the Active

Voice, becomes the subject of the verb in the Passive Voice and is placed before the

verb; and child, the subject of the verb in the Active Voice, becomes the object of the preposition by, and is placed after the verb.

See Exercise 6

It should be noted that, when changing the Voice of a verb in a sentence while

preserving the meaning of the sentence, it is necessary to make sure that the verb agrees with its new subject

e.g Active: The boys are mowing the lawn.

Passive: The lawn is being mowed by the boys

In the first sentence, the subject boys is plural; therefore a plural auxiliary are is used

In the second sentence, the subject lawn is singular; therefore a singular auxiliary is is

used The agreement of verbs with noun subjects is discussed in the next chapter

b Changing the verb from the passive voice to the active voice

When a verb is changed from the Passive Voice to the Active Voice, in order to

preserve the meaning of the sentence, the former subject becomes the object of the

verb, and, if the sentence includes a phrase beginning with the preposition by, the

former object of the preposition becomes the subject of the verb

e.g Passive: The clover is being eaten by the cow

Active: The cow is eating the clover.

In this pair of examples, the verb is being eaten, in the Passive Voice, is changed to is eating, in the Active Voice In order to preserve the meaning of the sentence, clover,

the subject of the verb in the Passive Voice, becomes the object of the verb in the

Active Voice, and is placed after the verb; and cow, the object of the preposition by,

becomes the subject of the verb in the Active Voice, and is placed before the verb

Other examples are:

Passive: The wine was ordered by the dealer

Active: The dealer ordered the wine.

Passive: The deer could have been killed by the poacher

Active: The poacher could have killed the deer.

See Exercise 7

c Changing the voice of a verb which takes both a direct object and an indirect object

When a verb in the Active Voice takes both a direct object and an indirect object, either object can become the subject of the verb when the verb is put into the Passive Voice, and the meaning of the sentence is preserved The object which does not

become the subject remains as an object When a verb in the Passive Voice takes an indirect object, the indirect object is usually preceded by a preposition

e.g Active: The guide will show you the museum.

Passive: You will be shown the museum by the guide.

Passive: The museum will be shown to you by the guide

In the first sentence, the verb will show, in the Active Voice, takes the direct

object museum, and the indirect object you In the second and third sentences, the verb will be shown is in the Passive Voice, and the meaning has been preserved by altering the word order and using the preposition by In the second sentence, the

former indirect object, you, is the subject of the verb, and the former direct

object, museum, remains the direct object In the third sentence, the former direct object, museum, is the subject of the verb, and the former indirect object, you, is preceded by the preposition to.

A similar example is:

Active: The policeman gave you a medal.

Passive: You were given a medal by the policeman.

Passive: A medal was given to you by the policeman

In the first sentence, the verb gave, in the Active Voice, takes the direct

object medal and the indirect object you In the second and third sentences, the

verb was given is in the Passive Voice In the second sentence, the former indirect object, you, is the subject of the verb, and the former direct object, medal, remains the direct object In the third sentence, the former direct object, medal, is the subject of the verb, and the former indirect object, you, is preceded by the preposition to.

6 The subjunctive mood of the passive voice

The Passive Voice tenses discussed so far have all been in the Indicative Mood

However, verbs in the Passive Voice can also be put into the Subjunctive Mood.

It has been seen that all of the tenses in the Passive Voice are formed using auxiliaries

As has already been explained, the Subjunctive Mood of tenses using auxiliaries is formed by putting the first auxiliary into the Subjunctive Mood

Using the verb to show as an example, the following table illustrates the formation of

the tenses of the Subjunctive Mood of the Passive Voice

The Subjunctive Mood of the Passive Voice of the verb To Show

they be being shown they were being shown

they have been shown they had been shown

Present Perfect Continuous Past Perfect Continuous

I have been being shown I had been being shown

you have been being shown you had been being shown

he have been being shown he had been being shown

she have been being shown she had been being shown

it have been being shown it had been being shown

we have been being shown we had been being shown

they have been being shown they had been being shown

The following table summarizes the formation of the Subjunctive tenses of the Passive Voice

The Formation of the Subjunctive Mood of the Passive Voice

Present Perfect Continuous have been being past participle

Past Perfect Continuous had been being past participle

a Use of the simple present subjunctive

Like the Simple Present Subjunctive of the Active Voice, the Simple Present

Subjunctive of the Passive Voice is often used in subordinate clauses beginning

withthat in sentences which contain formal commands, or requests.

As can be seen from the preceding table, the Simple Present Subjunctive of The

Passive Voice is formed from the invariable auxiliary be, followed by the past

participle of the verb The following sentences are examples of the use of the Simple Present Subjunctive of the Passive Voice

e.g I request that he be invited to speak

We asked that our suggestions be considered

They will insist that their colleague be admitted to the association

See Exercise 8

b Use of the past forms of the subjunctive

Like the past forms of the Subjunctive of the Active Voice, the past forms of the

Subjunctive of the Passive Voice are used in wishes, and in statements containing false or improbable conditions

e.g I wish he were allowed to come

It would have been better if they had been invited

In the first example, the Simple Past Subjunctive of the Passive Voice, were allowed,

is used in expressing a wish In the second example, the Past Perfect Subjunctive of