| The
Passive Voice
In other sections, you have seen verbs
used in the active voice. The passive
voice is sometimes used in English as
well. With the active voice, the agent
or subject comes before the verb. With
the passive, the subject (either stated
or implied) follows the verb and is usually
preceded with the word by:
ACTIVE:
--The doctor wrote a prescription.
PASSIVE:
--The prescription was written by
the doctor.
NOTE: In the passive, the object of the
active verb becomes the subject.
To make the passive, use the appropriate
form of the verb to be + past participle.
Only transitive verbs are used in the
passive:
ACTIVE: Fred helps Jane.
PASSIVE: Jane is helped by Fred.
ACTIVE: He is helping her.
PASSIVE: She is being helped by him.
ACTIVE: He has helped her.
PASSIVE: She has been helped by him.
ACTIVE: He helped her.
PASSIVE: She was helped by him.
ACTIVE: He was helping her.
PASSIVE: She was being helped by him.
ACTIVE: He had helped her.
PASSIVE: She had been helped by him.
ACTIVE: He will help her.
PASSIVE: She will be helped by him.
ACTIVE: He is going to help her.
PASSIVE: She is going to be helped by
him.
Usually the by phrase is omitted in a
passive sentence. The passive is used
mainly when it is not known or not important
to know who was responsible for the action:
--The house was built in 1960.
(The by phrase is left out because it
is understood that builders built the
house).
Direct and Indirect Speech
In newspapers, magazines, and books, you
will often see quoted or direct speech:
--They said, "We have no record of this
transaction."
--He stated, "I don't know what happened."
In spoken English, reported or indirect
speech will be used instead:
--They said that they had no record of
this transaction.
--He stated that he didn't know what happened.
In reported or indirect speech, no quotation
marks are used and the subject of the
main clause and the dependent clause are
the same.
Here are some rules for tense usage in
indirect speech:
1. If the main verb of the sentence is
in the past (said, reported, stated, etc.),
the verb in the dependent clause will
also be in the past.
2. Here is a chart indicating typical
transformations:
QUOTED IN-->REPORTED IN
simple present-->simple past
present progressive-->perfect progressive
present perfect-->past perfect
simple past-->past perfect
future-->conditional
EXAMPLES:
--I said, "She reads the pap^-^-^-^-^-^er
everyday."
-->I said she read the paper everyday.
--I said, "She is reading the paper everyday."
-->I said she was reading the paper....
--I said, "She has read the paper everyday."
-->I said she had read the paper....
--I said, "She read the paper everyday."
-->I said she had read the paper....
--I said, "She will read the paper everyday."
-->I said she would read the paper....
In reported speech, an imperative will
change to an infinitive. Furthermore,
say will be replaced by a form of tell:
--He said, "Show me your passport."
-->He told me to show my passport. |
