Active Voice : My brother broke the mirror. S
V O
Passive Voice : The mirror was broken by my brother. S
V O
Active Voice : Dianne will invite Tom to her party. S
V O
Passive Voice : Tom will be invited by Dianne to her party. From the sentences above, it can be explained that, first, the object in active
voice becomes the subject in the passive form. Second, the subject in active voice may become the one who receives the action begun with by. In active sentence, my
brother is the focus idea, but in passive sentence, the mirror is the main point. To understand the passive form, students should know the grammatical term
of subject, object, and transitive verb. The term ‘by-phrase’ is used for the prepositional phrase that includes the doer of the verb’s action. Yet, it sometimes
does not require identification of the doer because it may not important or necessary to know who did something.
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In summary, passive voice is a sentence in which it focuses on what happens to the subject whowhat gets the action, whereas an active voice shows the action of
what subject does. In the passive voice, the subject of active sentence becomes the object of passive sentence.
2. Formula of Passive Voice
There are some rules to change an active sentence becomes passive voice. a. Students change the subject in active becomes the object in passive. So, the
position of agent in active will be put after the verb which is preceded by ‘by’.
24
Martha Hall and Betty S. Azar, Understanding and Using English Grammar, New York: Pearson, 2010, 4
th
Edition, p. 70.
b. The active voice should be a transitive sentence; it is defined as a sentence that needs object to complete the verb.
For example: Active
: Alex is preparing that report. That sentence has an object that report, so it can be changed into passive
voice. Passive
: That report is being prepared by Alex. c. The formula of passive voice is subject followed by tobe depends on
tenses and past participle. d. If people need to know the agent of the action, passive voice should place
the agent after the verb begun with by. e. In passive voice, the information about the doer is often unknown or
unimportant,
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for passive voice prefers focusing on the receiver of the action to the doer agent who performs the action.
Example: •
A lot of money was stolen in the residence. Someone stole it, but people do not know who.
• That beautiful building was built in 1991. Someone built it, but it is not
important exactly who built that beautiful building.
Table 2.1 Formula of Passive Voice
Tenses S
U B
J Tobe
V3 Example
S. Present Tense isamare
The door is opened by Rani
S. Past Tense waswere
The email was sent by my friend
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Raymond Murphy, Grammar in Use, New York: Cambridge University Press, 2000, p. 78.
Present Continuous E
C T
isamare+being The computer is being
repaired now Past Continuous
waswere+being The computer was being
repaired now Present Perfect
hashave+been The cake has been eaten
by my sister Past Perfect
had+been Many cars had been
repaired by George Future Tense
will+be My birthday cake will be
made by my mom
Those seven tenses showed in table are the main tenses which should be taught in the first grade of senior high school. In addition, the material of passive
voice requires students to understand the passive in form of positive and negative sentences. Therefore, this research limits the explanation of passive voice into seven
tenses which are developed in the table above. a. Simple Present Tense
Active Voice + S + V1 + O + …
- S + dodoes + not + V1 + O + … PassiveVoice
