5. Active Voice
• It is the most common, unmarked
voice.
Subject Verb Object
Active
>
Voice
The choir sings love songs.
6. Passive Voice
• Passive verb phrases are less common and used
for special discourse functions.
Subject Verb Object
Passive
>
Voice
Love are sung by the choir.
songs
8. Normal Passives follow the three general
steps to form passive sentences:
•PASSIVE SUBJECT
OBJECT
VERB •BE+PARTICIPLE
•AGENT
SUBJECT COMPLEMENT
9. Object --- Passive Subject
To transform an active sentence into a passive one,
it is commonly believed that the main verb in
active should be transitive, i.e., there should be a
Direct Object in the sentence. However, the
English language proves that a passive sentence
can also be created from the Indirect Object in
the active sentence.
Therefore, this leads us to say that to form a passive
sentence we need to have an Object in the active
counterpart.
10. Verb --- Be + Participle
• ACTIVE • PASSIVE
teach / teaches Am/is/are taught
Is teaching Is being taught
Taught Was/were taught
Was teaching Was were being taught
Have / has taught Have/has been taught
Had taught Had been taught
Will teach Will be taught
To teach To be taught
11. Subject --- Agent Complement
• When is the agent complement not
necessary?
when the active subject is an
indefinite pronoun or a generic
noun. (i.e., some-, any-, no-&
“people”) This is called the
impersonal passive.
