Passive voice and active voice | Learn English | Canguro English

Join Raquel and I was we study the passive voice and the active voice! See you in class!
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The poor old passive. For some unknown reason it seems to be a 20th century sport to criticise and recommend against using the passive. The passive is called lazy, dull, sneaky, weak, it is forbidden in style guides, and we are told that good writers don't use it. But as you will see not only is that untrue (most critics can't even recognise a passive construction), but is an absolutely essential construction in English.

WHAT IS THE PASSIVE?
The first thing to note is that the passive is not a tense, it is a voice, and exists in various tenses.

USAGE
We use the passive for a huge variety of reasons, but the main reasons are:

- When we don't know the actor
- When we don't want to mention the actor
- When we are more interested in the action than the actor
- To avoid overly formal or complex constructions

Now let's look more closely at these reasons.

WHEN WE DON'T KNOW THE ACTOR
Sometimes we don't know who or what performed an action, so we use the passive to avoid mentioning it, for example:

My car has been moved.

In this case we don't know who moved the car, so the passive is very useful.

WHEN WE DON'T WANT TO MENTION THE ACTOR
Sometimes we don't want to mention the actor for various reasons. For example if the action is negative, we want to avoid problems by accusing people of things, or we are not sure or we have forgotten who the actor is, for example:

The politician was murdered last night.
Pay will be reduced for all staff.

WHEN WE ARE MORE INTERESTED IN THE ACTION
Sometimes we want to focus on the action rather than who or what is doing it, and the passive helps us to emphasise this, for example:

A new swimming pool is being built by the council.

TO AVOID COMPLEX OR FORMAL CONSTRUCTIONS
In English when we need to use an impersonal pronoun, reflexive form or possessive then we used to use "one", but this is now rarely used in modern English and feels extremely formal. You could use the pronoun "you", but it is also natural to use the passive in this situation, for example:

One sees these types of problems everywhere. (active)
You see these types of problems everywhere (with "you")
These types of problems are seen everywhere. (passive)

Also, using the passive can avoid overly-complex or confusing structures in English, such as when we need to change the subject within a single clause, for example:

When they arrived at school a teacher taught them. (active)
When they arrived at school they were taught (by a teacher). (passive)

But there is a restriction on adding information using by; you cannot use something as the subject of a passive if it is newer than the "by" clause. For example:

Have you heard about Paco? He was kissed by Sarah. (Good)
Have you heard about Sarah? Paco was kissed by her. (Bad)

Now you know everything about the passive. See you in class!

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