the passive

the passive UK [ˈpæsɪv] US noun linguistics

the passive form of a verb. The passive is also sometimes calle the passive voice .

Thesaurus: verb forms and tenses_hyponym

See also: active

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◊ GRAMMAR

The passive refers to verb groups whose subject is the person or thing that is affected by an action. For example, `Our dinner's been eaten by the dog' contains a passive verb. With active verb groups, the subject is the person or thing doing the action, as in `The dog's eaten our dinner'.

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You use the passive when you are more interested in the person or thing affected by the action than in the person or thing doing the action, or when you do not know who performed the action. When you use the passive, you do not have to mention the performer of the action, as in `Our dinner's been eaten'.

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Passive verb groups consist of a tense of `be', followed by the past participle of the main verb. For example, if you want to use the passive of the simple past of `eat', you use the simple past of `be' (`was' or `were') and the past participle of `eat' (`eaten'). You can have passive infinitives, such as `to be eaten' and passive `-ing' forms, such as `being eaten'. For full information, see entry at ↑ Tenses.

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Nearly all transitive verbs (verbs which can have an object) can be used in the passive.

The room has been cleaned.

Some very interesting work is being done on this.

The name of the winner will be announced tomorrow.

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◊ WARNING

A few transitive verbs are rarely or never used in the passive:

elude, escape, flee, get, have, let, like, race, resemble, suit, survive

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Many phrasal verbs which consist of an intransitive verb and a preposition can also be used in the passive.

In some households, the man was referred to as the master.

Sanders asked if such men could be relied on to keep their mouths shut.

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Note that the preposition is still put after the verb, but it is not followed by a noun group because the noun group it applies to is being used as the subject.

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◊ 'by'

In a passive sentence, if you want to mention the person or thing that performs an action, you use the preposition `by'.

He had been poisoned by his girlfriend.

He was brought up by an aunt.

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If you want to mention the thing that is used to perform an action, you use the preposition `with'.

A circle was drawn in the dirt with a stick.

Moisture must be drawn out first with salt.

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◊ object complements

Some verbs can have a complement after their object. The complement is an adjective or noun group which describes the object. (See section on object complements in entry at ↑ Complements.) When these verbs are used in the passive, the complement is put immediately after the verb.

In August he was elected Vice President of the Senate.

If a person today talks about ghosts, he is considered ignorant or mad.

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◊ 'get'

In conversation, `get' is sometimes used instead of `be' to form the passive.

Our car gets cleaned about once every two months.

My husband got fined in Germany for crossing the road.

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◊ in report structures

For information on the use of reporting verbs in the passive, see entry at ↑ Reporting.

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