Active and Passive Tenses
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Past Participles and the Passive Tense
The passive tense is not used very often. Mainly, we use it for three purposes:
1) to creatively stress the object of the sentence
2) in titles of articles
3) in some kinds of technical writing
All sentences have a subject and a verb. Many sentences also have an
object. The object is a noun that answers the question: who, what or
where. An object may also be part of a phrase.
We travelled south. Where did we travel? South--the object.
I like John. Who do I like? John--the object.
The computer has a virus. The computer has what? A virus--the object.
She went to work. She went where? To work--the object phrase.
Note: it is possible to create a passive sentence from an object
phrase, but even more uncommon. They tend to sound old-fashioned. Most
passive sentences are created from simple objects. This means you can
answer the question
what or
where with the
noun only and not a phrase such as
to the movie or
at the store.
We create the passive tense by putting the
object, not the
subject, first.
The Active and the Passive Tenses
Review these examples to see the difference between the active and the passive tense.
Active
|
Passive
|
The plane crash killed 30 people.
|
30 people were killed in the plane crash.
|
An earthquake shook the town.
|
The town was shaken by the earthquake.
|
The thief stole ten million dollars in jewels.
|
Ten million dollars in jewels were stolen by the thief.
|
Our software gave us false information.
|
False information was given by our software.
|
We chose to drive south.
|
South was chosen as our direction.
|
As you can see, the passive tense requires additional words, and it is
harder to read because of the subject/object reversal. This is why it
is not used all the time. However, you can also see how a newspaper
title will be more exciting if the first words are
10 Million Dollars rather than
The Thief. Also, some technical writing requires the object to come first.
TAKE THE QUIZ
Practice converting the following sentences into the passive tense.
Remember to use the past participle in the passive. If there is an
extra phrase, you can attach it to the end of the sentence.
1. My dog saw a rabbit.
2. A bee stung me.
3. At my citizenship ceremony, everyone spoke the Pledge of Allegiance.
4. Our software program lost some of the user names.
5. President Obama won the 2012 election.
6. The police officer killed an innocent man.
7. The bulletin board showed recent music events.
8. The restaurant provided free food at the community event.
Answers are at the bottom of the page.
Challenge: Write 6-8 of you own
sentences using a simple Subject/Verb/Object format. Think about active
verbs and avoid prepositions in your object. Then convert your own
sentences into the passive tense.
