Faculty of applied Languages FON University

Seminar paper in: MORPHOLOGY Passive Voice in English Language

Student: Radmila Trajkova Index . 07/0048(05)

Mentor: Doc.d-r Liljana Mitkovska

Skopje,2009

Contents:

About English Language and Grammar...4 The Passive Voice.5 Voice.5 Form of Passive.....6 Uses of the Passive Voice.........................7 It Passives..9 The Passive Voice and Active Tenses.10 The Functions of Passive Voice...12

About The English Language and Grammar

English is a West Germanic language that has roots from Anglo-Saxon England. As a result of the military, economic, scientific, political and cultural influence of the British Empire during the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries and of the United States since the late 19th century, Historically, English originated from several dialects, now called Old English, which were brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers beginning in the 5th century.The Old English was very often used by writers such as William Sheakspire .Modern English developed from there and continues to adopt foreign words from a variety of languages, as well as coining new words. A significant number of English words, especially technical words, have been constructed based on roots from Latin and ancient Greek. Even though English language is so widely spoken, it has often been referred to as a "world language. While English is not an official language in most countries, it is currently the language most often taught as a second language around the world. English grammar is a body of rules (grammar) specifying how phrases and sentences are constructed in the English language. The grammar of the English language is an analysis of the various functions performed by the words of the language, as they are used by native speakers and writers. There are many different ways of analyzing a language. In such an analysis, words can be given various names, depending on the function which they perform. For instance, words which perform the function of naming things are commonly referred to as nouns, and words which

perform the function of expressing states or actions are commonly referred to as verbs. In some languages, verb tenses are not very important or do not even exist. In English, the concept of tense is very important. Tense is a method that is used in English to refer to time - past, present and future. Many languages use tenses to talk about time. Other languages have no tenses, but of course they can still talk about time, using different methods.

The Passive voice

Voice
In English as in many other languages, the passive voice is a grammatical voice where Voice shows the relationship of the subject to the action. In the active voice, the subject does the action (cats eat mice). In the passive voice, the subject receives the action (mice are eaten by cats). Among other things, we can use voice to help us change the focus of attention.

The subject receives the action of a transitive verb, and passive refers more generally to verbs using this construction and the passages in which they are used. In English, a passive verb is periphrastic; that is, it does not have a one-word form, but consists of an auxiliary verb plus the past participle of the transitive verb. The auxiliary is a form of the verb to be, but other auxiliary verbs, such as get, are sometimes verb usually used. The passive voice can be used in any number of tenses.

Form of Passive

Subject + finite form of to be + Past Participle (3rd column of irregular verbs) Example: A letter was written. . Transitive verbs i.e verbs that can take an object can appear in two types of sentences a. active b. passive Only transitive verbs (those that take objects) can be transformed into passive constructions. Furthermore, active sentences containing certain verbs cannot be transformed into passive structures. To have is the most important of these verbs. We can say "He has a new car," but we cannot say "A new car is had by him."

When rewriting active sentences in passive voice, we should take a note to the following:

the object of the active sentence becomes the subject of the passive sentence the finite form of the verb is changed (to be + past participle) the subject of the active sentence becomes the object of the passive sentence (or is dropped)

Active sentence: Julia wrote a poem

Passive sentence: A poem was written (by Julia)

When there are two objects(direct and indirect), two passive sentences are possible:

Example.

Tim gave some flowers to Lisa.

Some flowers were given to Lisa by Tim. Lisa was given some flowers by Tim.

Uses of the Passive Voice

Most often passive is used when:

a.

It is not necessary to mention the doer of the action as it obvious who he is/ was/ will be: She was given given a nice birthday present.

b. The subject is either well-known or it is irrelevant: My car has been moved

c. We dont want to mention the doer of the action:

I was told he was he was elected

d.We want to emphasize the doer of the action. Or when the receiver of the action is more important than the performer, use the passive voice: Peter was attendended by his sister during his illnes

e. We want to deemphasize the doer of the action: The house next door has been bought (by Mr. Jones) f. We want to avoid an awkward or ungrammatical sentence: When he arrived home a detective arrested him. When he arrived home he was arrested ( by a detective).
g. The passive is sometimes used for psychological reasons. A

speaker may use it to disclaim responsibility for disagreeable announcement: This letter has been opened! Instead of Youve opened this letter!

It passives
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It + passive + that + clause or subject + passive + to be

This type of passive usually appears with the verbs : understand think suppose declare feel expect discover decide say arrange believe

Example: It is said that he is a spy = He is said to be a spy

Passive Voice and Active Tenses

Present Simple Active Passive Present progressive Active Passive Past simple Active Passive Past progressive Active Passive Present perfect Active Passive Past perfect Active Passive Future Active Passive

Subject Somebody The house

Verb cleans is cleaned

Object the house

every day

Somebody The house Somebody The house Somebody The house Somebody The house Somebody The house Somebody The house

is cleaning is being cleaned was cleaned was cleaning was being cleaned has cleaned has been cleaned has cleaned had been cleaned will clean will be cleaned

the house cleaned the house

at the moment yesterday

the house

yesterday

the house

the house

the house

tomorrow

Scheme1

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The Functions of Passive Voice

The passive voice is used to show interest in the person or object that experiences an action rather than the person that perfomes the action:

The passive is used ...: We are interested in the passive, not who uses it. The house was built in 1654: We are interested in the house, not the builder. The road is being repaired: We are interested in the road, not the people repairing it.

In other words, the most important thing or person becomes the subject of the sentence. Sometimes we use the passive voice because we don't know or cannot express who or what performed the action:

I noticed that a window had been left open Every year people are killed on our roads.

If we want to say who or what performs the action, we use the preposition by:

"A Hard Day's Night" was written by the Beatles ET was directed by Spielberg

The passive voice is often used in formal or scientific texts:

Our planet is wrapped in a mass of gases. Waste materials are disposed of in a variety of ways.

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The passive is very important and far more frenquently used in English than in Macedonian despite the fact that Macedonian has two distinct passives. In Macedonian for achieving the same goals very often is not necessary to transform sentence into a passive one.. Consequently , when translating English passive sentences into Macedonian we should look for parallel sentences first.

"We have not passed that subtle line between childhood and adulthood until we move from the passive voice to the active voice--that is, until we have stopped saying 'It got lost,' and say, 'I lost it.'" (Sidney J. Harris)

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