Mentioning the agent

Uses of the Passive Voice Peculiar to the English Language

1. When we form passives, we do not usually mention the person or thing responsible for the action (the agent ['eɪʤ(ə)nt]). We do not mention the agent when we want to hide the information or we want to avoid taking responsibility for an action. I've been told not to say anything.

Taxes will have to be raised next year

Other reasons for using the passive include:

• the agent is unknown or obvious:

I was born in 1982.

• the agent is ‘people or things in general’:

Some verbs are not used in the Continuous.

• the agent is a long phrase:

Helen was surprised by all the messages of sympathy that she received.

• avoiding references to ourselves and making a statement impersonal:

ACTIVE: We can’t possibly complete this work tonight. becomes

PASSIVE: This work can’t possibly be completed tonight. (= the work is the problem, not us)

• avoiding ‘you’ in orders and rules:

ACTIVE: You must give in your application before the end of the week, becomes All applications must be given in before the end of the week.

• in factual writing when the focus is usually on events, achievements, etc. rather than agents: Vaccination had been pioneered two hundred years earlier.

2. But it sometimes becomes necessary to indicate the doer of the action and then a by - phrase is used for it.

e.g. Другие возможности обсуждались Other possibilities were talked

некоторыми моими коллегами. of by some of my colleagues

In this case a corresponding active construction is possible.

e.g. Some of my colleagues talked of other possibilities.

NOTE 1: We mention the agent only when this information is important. If the agent is obvious, unknown, or is 'people in general', we omit it:

e.g. He was fined for driving without a license.

NOTE 2: In particular, we mention the agent when we add information about it in the next part of the sentence:

e.g. The car had been driven by my younger brother who didn't have a driving license.

3. With certain verbs the Passive is impossible without the mention of the agent as the sentence would be meaningless without it. This is the case with such verbs as:

to follow (['fɔləu] следовать, идти за), to overtake [ ˌəuvə'teɪk] overtook, overtaken;обрушиваться, случаться внезапно, застигать врасплох, овладевать), to seize ( [siːz] охватить, обуять (о страхе, желании), to visit, to enhance, to set off (уравновешивать; компенсировать; засчитывать (денежную сумму), to accent ([ək'sent] произносить выразительно, выговаривать), to govern ( ['gʌv(ə)n] 1) править, управлять 2) влиять; руководить, направлять 3) определять, обусловливать 4) сдерживать, ограничивать: ), to control, to rule, to influence, to confront ([kən'frʌnt] противостоять, оказывать сопротивление), to attend (посещать, присутствовать, заботиться, ухаживать), to accompany, to join, to cause, to bring about (осуществлять, вызывать, быть причиной), to mark (отличать, служить характерным признаком, характеризовать), to characterize, to attract and some others.

e.g. За ответом последовала выразительная тишина.

The answer was followed by an impressive silence.

e.g. Его сопровождал отец, который очень нервничал.

He was accompanied by his father who was very nervous.

e.g. На него легко оказывают влияния идеи любого, с кем он встречается.

He is very easily influenced by the ideas of anyone whom he meets.

e.g. Затем мое внимание было привлечено шумом, исходящим из-под огорожи.

Then my attention was caught by the noise coming from behind the fence.

NOTE 3: When we mention the agent, we generally use by when we mention who or what was responsible, and with when we mention the instrument used:

e.g.Машиной управлял мой младший брат. The car had been driven by my younger brother.

e.g. Жертва была убита ножом для нарезки хлеба. The victim had been killed with a bread knife.

!!!! e.g. Окно было разбито ветром The window was broken by the wind.

• We can follow some verbs with by or with – to be surrounded:

Аэропорт был окружен солдатами (2 в).

The airport was surrounded by soldiers. / The airport was surrounded with soldiers.

• We follow verbs such as cover with by, in or with:

Его тело было покрыто пчелами. His body was covered by /in/with bees.

• Before peculiar words some peculiar prepositions are used:

e.g. Бланк был заполнен ручкой – The form was filled in pen (pencil, ink etc.)

4.There are a number of verbs in English which take two objects—a direct and an indirect object. The most frequently used verbs of this kind are to tell, to give, to offer, to show, to pay, to grant, to leave, to promise, to lend, to send and a few others.

These verbs may have two passive constructions: When we use verbs with two objects (a person and something), either object can be the subject of the sentence in the passive sentence: e.g. Jane gave him some money. (= active form) He was given some money by Jane.

Some money was given to him by Jane.

When I came to the office a telegram was given to me.

I was told some very interesting news.

He told me that he had been offered a well-paid job at a publishing house.

!!!!!!! It is more common, however, for the person to be made the subject of the passive verb: Carmen taught him all the Spanish he knows – He was taught all the Spanish he knows by Carmen.

All the Spanish he knows was taught to him by Carmen. (= possible, but clumsy)

NOTE 4: There are a number of verbs in English which admit only one passive construction. Among them we find to write, to read, to play, to telegraph, to bring, to cross, to publish, to break, to approve, to disapprove and some others

I wrote him a letter → A letter was written to him.

I played him the tune → The tune was played to him.

He telegraphed me the news. → The news was telegraphed to me.

NOTE 5: Some verbs (to explain, to announce, to describe, to demonstrate, to introduce, to mention, to propose, to report, to repeat, to dictate, to point out, suggest) can be used only in the following type of passive constructions:

Smth     (smb)	is was will be	explained	to smb
announced
described repeated
dictated
pointed out

The method was explained to us in detail.

Was the rule explained to them?

!!!! COMPARE: He was pointed out to me at a party. When was he pointed out to you?

5. We use a group of verbs more often in the passive than in the active. These include:

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