The Passive Voice

The Active Voice

§ 62. The Active Voice shows that the person or thing denoted by the subject of the sentence is the agent (the doer) of the action expressed by the predicate verb, that it acts.

E.g.Why haveyou done it?

Note. Yet there are cases when, owing to the lexical character of the verb, the thing denoted by the subject of the sentence cannot be regarded as the doer of the action. This becomes obvious if we compare the following examples:

a) The maid who opened the door for b) The door opened and Mrs Knight
me told me that Mr March was appeared with a tea tray,

waiting for me.

She closed the door softly and went The door closed and there was

straight to the telephone. silence in the large room.

The Passive Voice

§ 63. The Passive Voice serves to show that the person or thing denoted by the subject of the sentence is not the agent (the doer) of the action expressed by the predicate verb but the object of this action. The subject of a passive verb does not act but is acted upon, it undergoes an action.

e.g. She was woken from her sleep by his singing.

Note. There are a few cases when, owing to the lexical character of the verb, the subject of the sentence cannot be regarded as the object undergoing the action expressed by the predicate verb. Yet examples of this kind are treated in grammar
as the Passive Voice since the form of the verb is passive.

e.g. All of a sudden I realized that I was lost in the wild open country.
§ 64. The Passive Voice is an analytical form which is built up by means of the auxiliary verb to be in the required finite form and the participle of the notional verb.

the Present Indefinite — is (am, are) done
the Past Indefinite — was (were) done
the Future Indefinite — will (shall) be done
the Present Perfect — has (have) been done
the Past Perfect — had been done

the Future Perfect — will (shall) have been done
the Present Continuous — is (am, are) being done
the Past Continuous — was (were) being done
The interrogative form is built up by placing the (first) auxiliary verb before the subject of the sentence (e.g. When was it done? Has the work been done?, etc.). The negative form is built up by placing the particle not after the (first) auxiliary (e.g. The work was not done yesterday. The work will not be done tomorrow, etc.).

Note. The Passive Voice may also be formed by means of the auxiliary verb to get and the participle of the notional verb. But instances of this kind are infrequent {even in informal English) and restricted mainly to situations and contexts
dealing with accidental or unpleasant happenings.

e.g. The boy got hurt on his way home.

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