The passive voice is used in various types of statements.
The passive voice is a type of grammatical voice . This idea (grammatical voice), meanwhile, is the category of grammar that is associated with the verb and that refers to the semantic link it maintains with the object and the subject . According to the grammatical voice, the subject is patient or agent depending on whether he receives or executes the action .
The passive voice , as its name indicates, appears with the patient subject . A complement is the grammatical element that executes the action of the verb , while the subject receives it.
For example: "The tower in the center of the city was designed by my father." In this case, "the tower in the center" is the passive subject that receives the action ( "it was designed" ) carried out by the agent complement ( "my father" ). That same sentence could be converted to the active voice as follows: "My father designed the tower in the center of the city." If we analyze this expression, "my father" is the active subject since he appears as the agent of the action ( "designed" ).
Types of passive voice
It is possible to distinguish between two fundamental types of passive voice: process and state . The process passive voice especially emphasizes the action, it allows us to answer the question "what happened?" . It is very rare in everyday speech and is reserved for written language ; It is formed with the auxiliary verb to be more the main one, as in the case of "the young woman has been run over."
Regarding the passive voice of state , we can say that it serves to describe an event once it has finished. It is constructed with the auxiliary verb estar and can be seen in the following example: "The father of the young woman who was run over is very worried" ; Before reaching that state, this man received news of the accident or witnessed it and that generated his change of mood, which will remain stable until his daughter recovers.
There is another type of passive voice, known as reflex passive voice . Its use is much more frequent in speech than that of the process passive voice, although it is often used inappropriately. As a general rule, it is recommended not to use it if the subject of the passive is a person. An example of a reflex passive voice is the following: "Singing classes are taught."
It is possible to include the passive voice in the framework of a dissertation.
Its use in the media
The passive voice can also appear in news presented by the media: "The budget will be approved by Congress" (active voice: "Congress will approve the budget" ), "The Argentine coach was fired by the Catalan club" (active voice: active: "The Catalan club fired the Argentine coach" ), "The speech was broadcast on public television" (active voice: "Public television broadcast the speech" ).
Thanks to the use of the passive voice we can give emphasis to the action or state indicated by a sentence; Unlike what happens in the active voice, the subject is not relevant, it is anonymous or we assume that all the interlocutors know it well and that is why we omit it. Below we present a small situation in which all types of passive voice are used, returning to the example mentioned above.
«A woman has been hit by a bus. The emergency medical service has already been called. The wound is taken to the health center. Witnesses have been interviewed by police officers. The woman's relatives wish to be informed. In particular, his father is very worried.
Since in the previous example the actions seem to be more important than those who perform them, the passive voice is more appropriate than the active voice for this narration. This does not mean that agents are absolutely irrelevant. For its part, we can deduce those that are not mentioned, thanks to the context ; For example, it is likely that witnesses or the woman's family members called emergency medical services, and that she was taken to the hospital by ambulance.
The passive voice can be used with different tenses.
Examples of passive voice
The passive voice can be used in any area as long as it contributes to expressive clarity and does not give rise to ambiguity. It is possible to use it in writing a report , in the academic writing of a thesis , in the preparation of an instructional text , in the development of a journalistic article or even in a work of narrative such as a story or a novel .
Take the case of a report about a football match. The chronicler can indicate: "The penalty was kicked by the Uruguayan striker." This is an example of passive voice: the "penal" appears as the passive recipient of the action ( "he was kicked" ), while the agent complement is the "Uruguayan striker" .
Let's now think about a literary criticism. The author can indicate: "The work will be acclaimed by readers." Appealing to his knowledge of literature, the critic makes a forecast using the passive voice, with a "work" as a passive subject that receives the action ( "will be acclaimed" ).