Active and Passive Voice

Read Chapter 3 of BFLAN

For 1/27 - Do a bunch of examples! Make sentences passive, make them active, explain why they are one way or the other.

Topics

active voice
passive voice
identifying active or passive voice
correcting passive voice
intransitive verb
"My first kiss will always be recalled by me as how my romance with Shayna was begun."
"My first visit to Boston will always be remembered by me."
"The young gentleman was later seen by me in front of the Gare Saint-Lazare."
"Midday was struck on the clock. The bus was being got onto by passengers. They were being squashed together. A hat was being worn on the head of a young gentleman, which hat was encircled by a plait and not by a ribbon. A long neck was sported by the young gentleman. The man standing next to him was being grumbled at by the latter because of the jostling which was being inflicted on him by him. As soon as a vacant seat was espied by the young gentleman, it was made the object of his precipitate movements and it became sat down upon."

Lesson, Readings, and Examples

There are two voices we're considering here: active and passive. The main difference is in how the subject and the verb are connected.

In an Active voice sentence, the subject does what the verb says. They are active, making something happen.

In a Passive voice sentence, something is happening to the subject. They are passive, being affected by something else.

Example: Mary ate the pie.

This is an active voice sentence, because the subject, Mary, is making the verb happen. We could change it to passive voice like this:

The pie was eaten by Mary

Notice now that the pie is the subject, and the verb is something that's happening to it.

Signs of passive voice

These signs are clues that we might be reading a passive voice sentence. They aren't a guaranteed proof, but they should make you sus.

The verb is past tense (past tense, e.g. helped)
There's a helping verb (be helped, was helped)
It uses by to explain what actually caused the action to happen (The stage hand was helped by the audience).
It's hard to figure out what's actually going on, because passive voice puts the action in reverse of what you expect.

So what?

Passive voice usually makes writing harder to understand, and weakens its impact. It's not always a bad thing, but you should be careful using it. It's easier to follow an idea when the active party comes before the action because you can immediately visualize what's happening, even before the sentence is complete. The clown honked the horn tells you at the start that a clown is doing something, and later fills in the details. The horn was honked by the clown not only has significantly more words, but it also forces you to remember the details for the entire sentence while you wait for the active party to show up.

So if passive voice is only usually a problem, when is it okay? Here's what the BBC says:

Use it when you don't know who the agent is:
- "My dog was released in the night" instead of "Somebody released my dog in the night."
Use it when it doesn't matter who the agent is:
- "Do you need a ride? No, l will be picked up."
Use it when the agent is clearly implied:
- "She found that she was being paid less then her male coworkers." instead of "She found that the company paid her less than her male coworkers."

exercise 3 passage

The Hunger Games was written by Suzanne Collins. This dystopian book is enjoyed by young adults all around the world. In The Hunger Games, a nation of twelve districts, called Panem, is controlled by the Capitol. Each year, twenty-four district children are forced by the Capitol to compete in an event called the Hunger Games, where they fight to the death until only one is left standing. A lottery selects which kids will fight.

District 12 is lived in by the protagonist, Katniss Everdeen. When her younger sister, Prim, is selected by the lottery as tribute, Katniss volunteers to take her place. That year the baker's son Peeta is also chosen by the lottery. Katniss and Peeta are escorted to the Capitol by chaperones.

Before the Hunger Games begin, all the tributes train. As they train, the tributes are observed by game makers who want to assess their strengths and weaknesses. Tributes are also interviewed by Caesar Flickerman on national television. If a tribute's interview goes well, gifts from generous viewers might be sent to them to help them survive. When the games begin Katniss, Peeta, and the other tributes are tested by a series of life-threatening obstacles. The light of day will only be seen by one winner.

Media resources

Review Questions , Chapter 3

#hw (lang) BFLAN exercises (evens) 3.1, 3.2 2025-01-22
#hw (lang) BFLAN exercises (evens) 3.3, 3.4 2025-01-23
#hw (lang) BFLAN exercises (evens) 3.5, 3.6 2025-01-24