{"id":74119,"date":"2020-04-19T09:33:30","date_gmt":"2020-04-19T09:33:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/?p=74119"},"modified":"2020-04-19T09:33:30","modified_gmt":"2020-04-19T09:33:30","slug":"active-and-passive-voice-basic-rules","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/active-and-passive-voice-basic-rules\/","title":{"rendered":"Active And Passive Voice | Basic Rules"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>When we say what people and things do, we use\u00a0<b>active verb forms<\/b>. When we say what happens to people and things &#8211; what is done to them &#8211; we often use\u00a0<b>passive verb forms<\/b>.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>They\u00a0<b>built\u00a0<\/b>this house in 1960. (active)<\/li>\n<li>This house\u00a0<b>was built<\/b>\u00a0in 1960. (passive)<\/li>\n<li>This book\u00a0<b>will change\u00a0<\/b>your life. (active)<\/li>\n<li>Your life\u00a0<b>will be changed\u00a0<\/b>by this book. (passive)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The\u00a0<b>object\u00a0<\/b>of an active verb corresponds to the\u00a0<b>subject<\/b>\u00a0of a passive verb.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>They built\u00a0<b>this house\u00a0<\/b>(object) in 1960.<\/li>\n<li><b>This house\u00a0<\/b>(subject) was built in 1960.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In most cases, the subject of an active verb is not mentioned in the corresponding passive sentence. If it does have to be mentioned, this usually happens in an expression with\u00a0<b>by<\/b>.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>This house was built in 1960\u00a0<b>by Sir John Elton.<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Passives: Agents<\/h2>\n<p>In most cases, the subject of an active verb\u00a0<b>(the agent)<\/b>\u00a0is not mentioned in the corresponding passive sentence. If it does have to be mentioned, we usually use an expression with\u00a0<b>by<\/b>.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><b>They\u00a0<\/b>gave me a warm welcome. (active)<\/li>\n<li>I was given a warm welcome<b>\u00a0by them.\u00a0<\/b>(passive)<\/li>\n<li><b>Children\u00a0<\/b>love toys. (active)<\/li>\n<li>Toys are loved<b>\u00a0by children.\u00a0<\/b>(passive)<\/li>\n<li><b>They\u00a0<\/b>built this house. (active)<\/li>\n<li>This house was built\u00a0<b>by them.<\/b><\/li>\n<li><b>Her attitude\u00a0<\/b>shocked me.<\/li>\n<li>I was shocked<b>\u00a0by her attitude.<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>It should be noted that<b>\u00a0by<\/b>\u00a0is not the only word with which the agent can be introduced. After the past participles of some &#8216;stative\u2019 verbs (verbs which refer to states, not actions) other prepositions can be used instead of<b>\u00a0by<\/b>.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><b>The state of his health\u00a0<\/b>worries me. (active)<\/li>\n<li>I am worried\u00a0<b>about the state of his health.\u00a0<\/b>(passive)<\/li>\n<li><b>Snakes\u00a0<\/b>scare me. (active)<\/li>\n<li>I am scared\u00a0<b>of snakes.\u00a0<\/b>(passive)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>With<\/b>\u00a0is used when we talk about an instrument which is used by an agent to do an action.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>He killed the snake\u00a0<b>with a stick.\u00a0<\/b>(active)<\/li>\n<li>The snake was killed (by him)\u00a0<b>with a stick.<\/b>\u00a0(passive)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Passives: Verbs with two objects<\/h2>\n<p>Many verbs can be followed by\u00a0<b>two objects &#8211; an <a href=\"http:\/\/perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/direct-and-indirect-object\/\">indirect object<\/a>\u00a0<\/b>and a\u00a0<b>direct object.\u00a0<\/b>The indirect object usually refers to a person and the direct object usually refers to a thing. Two structures are possible.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>She gave me (indirect object) a nice gift (direct object).<\/li>\n<li>She gave a nice gift (direct object) to me (indirect object).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Both these structures can be made passive.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>I was given a nice gift (by her). (Indirect object becomes subject.)<\/li>\n<li>A nice gift was given to me (by her). (Direct object becomes subject.)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Another example is given below.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>They lent me (indirect object) ten thousands pounds (direct object).<\/li>\n<li>They lent ten thousand pounds to me.<\/li>\n<li>I was lent ten thousand pounds. (passive)<\/li>\n<li>Ten thousand pounds were lent to me. (passive)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Common verbs that are followed by two objects include\u00a0<b>give, send, show, lend, pay, promise, refuse, tell\u00a0<\/b>and\u00a0<b>offer<\/b>.<\/p>\n<h2>Passives: object complements<\/h2>\n<p>After some verbs the direct object can be followed by an\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/subject-and-object-complements\/\"><b>object complement<\/b><\/a>\u00a0\u2013 a noun or adjective which describes or classifies the object.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>They elected\u00a0<b>him their leader.<\/b><\/li>\n<li>The other children called\u00a0<b>her stupid.<\/b><\/li>\n<li>We all regarded\u00a0<b>her as an expert.<\/b><\/li>\n<li>Queen Victoria considered\u00a0<b>him a genius.<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>When these clauses are made passive, these objects complements become subject complements; they come after the verb.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>He was\u00a0<b>elected their leader.<\/b><\/li>\n<li>She was\u00a0<b>called stupid\u00a0<\/b>by the other children.<\/li>\n<li>She was\u00a0<b>regarded as an expert.<\/b><\/li>\n<li>He was\u00a0<b>considered a genius\u00a0<\/b>by Queen Victoria.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Passives: Sentences with infinitive and clause objects<\/h2>\n<p>Some sentences have\u00a0<b><a href=\"http:\/\/perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/infinitives-or-gerunds-cbse-class-9-english-grammar\/\">infinitives<\/a>\u00a0<\/b>or<b>\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/main-clause\/\">clauses<\/a><\/b>\u00a0as their objects. Passive structures are not normally possible with these sentences.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>He thought\u00a0<b>that she was the right woman for the job<\/b>. (BUT NOT That she was the right woman for the job was thought by him.)<\/li>\n<li>I hoped\u00a0<b>to meet him.\u00a0<\/b>(BUT NOT To meet him was hoped by me.)<\/li>\n<li>People say\u00a0<b>that their marriage is in trouble.\u00a0<\/b>(BUT NOT That their marriage is in trouble is said by people.)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>However, most of these structures can be made passive if<b>\u00a0it<\/b>\u00a0is used as a preparatory subject for the clause.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><b>It\u00a0<\/b>was thought that she was the right woman for the job.<\/li>\n<li><b>It\u00a0<\/b>is said that their marriage is in trouble.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Passives: Verbs with object + infinitive<\/h2>\n<p>Most verbs can be followed by\u00a0<b>object + infinitive<\/b>. Most of these structures can be made passive.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>I told<b>\u00a0them to behave.\u00a0<\/b>(active)<\/li>\n<li>They were\u00a0<b>told to behave.\u00a0<\/b>(passive)<\/li>\n<li>I asked\u00a0<b>him to send\u00a0<\/b>me a letter. (active)<\/li>\n<li>He was asked\u00a0<b>to send me\u00a0<\/b>a letter. (passive)<\/li>\n<li>They\u00a0<b>thought him to be\u00a0<\/b>a traitor. (active)<\/li>\n<li>He was\u00a0<b>thought to be\u00a0<\/b>a traitor. (passive)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h5>Note<\/h5>\n<p>All active verbs cannot be followed by\u00a0<b>object + infinitive<\/b>. The verb\u00a0<b>say\u00a0<\/b>is one of them. With\u00a0<b>say\u00a0<\/b>the infinitive structure is only possible in the passive.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Their marriage<b>\u00a0is said to be<\/b>\u00a0in trouble. (BUT NOT People say their marriage to be in trouble.)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When we say what people and things do, we use\u00a0active verb forms. When we say what happens to people and things &#8211; what is done to them &#8211; we often use\u00a0passive verb forms. They\u00a0built\u00a0this&#46;&#46;&#46;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[251],"tags":[2708,771,44,2709],"class_list":["post-74119","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-grammar","tag-active-and-passive-voice","tag-active-voice","tag-passive-voice","tag-passive-voice-rules"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74119","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74119"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74119\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":74120,"href":"https:\/\/perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74119\/revisions\/74120"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}