ACTIVE AND PASSIVE VOICE
A. PASSIVE VOICE
The passive voice is a grammatical construction (a "voice") in which the subject of a sentence or clause denotes the recipient of the action rather than the performer. In the English language, the English passive voice is formed with an auxiliary verb (usually be or get) plus a participle (usually the past participle) of a transitive verb. For example, "Caesar was stabbed by Brutus" uses the passive voice. The subject denotes the individual (Caesar) affected by the action of the verb. The counterpart to this in active voice is, "Brutus stabbed Caesar," in which the subject denotes the doer, or agent, Brutus.
A sentence featuring the passive voice is sometimes called a passive sentence, and a verb phrase in passive voice is sometimes called a passive verb. English differs from languages in which voice is indicated through a simple inflection, since the English passive is periphrastic, composed of an auxiliary verb plus the past participle of the transitive verb.
Use of the English passive varies with writing style and field. Some style sheets discourage use of passive voice, while others encourage it. Although some purveyors of usage advice, including George Orwell (see Politics and the English Language, 1946) and William Strunk, Jr. and E. B. White (see The Elements of Style, 1919) discourage the English passive, its usefulness is recognized in cases where the theme (receiver of the action) is more important than the agent.
Identifying the English passive
In the following excerpt from the 18th-century United States Declaration of Independence (1776), the bold text identifies passive verbs; italicized text identifies the one active verb (hold ) and thecopulative verb are:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
In this case, the agent ("the Creator") of the passive construction can be identified with a by phrase. When such a phrase is missing, the construction is an agentless passive. For example, "Caesar was stabbed" is a perfectly grammatical full sentence, in a way that "stabbed Caesar" and "Brutus stabbed" are not. Agentless passives are common in scientific writing, where the agent may be irrelevant (e.g. "The mixture was heated to 300°C").
It is not the case, however, that any sentence in which the agent is unmentioned or marginalised is an example of the passive voice. Sentences like "There was a stabbing" or "A stabbing occurred" are not passive. See "Misapplication of the term," below for more discussion of this misconception.
Usage and style
Against the passive voice
Many language critics and language-usage manuals discourage use of the passive voice. This advice is not usually found in older guides, emerging only in the first half of the twentieth century. In 1916, the British writer Arthur Quiller-Couch, criticized this grammatical voice:
Generally, use transitive verbs, that strike their object; and use them in the active voice, eschewing the stationary passive, with its little auxiliary its’s and was’s, and its participles getting into the light of your adjectives, which should be few. For, as a rough law, by his use of the straight verb and by his economy of adjectives you can tell a man’s style, if it be masculine or neuter, writing or ‘composition’.
Two years later, in 1918, in The Elements of Style Cornell University Professor of English William Strunk, Jr. warned against excessive use of the passive voice:
The active voice is usually more direct and vigorous than the passive . . . This rule does not, of course, mean that the writer should entirely discard the passive voice, which is frequently convenient and sometimes necessary . . . The need to make a particular word the subject of the sentence will often . . . determine which voice is to be used. The habitual use of the active voice, however, makes for forcible writing. This is true not only in narrative concerned principally with action, but in writing of any kind. Many a tame sentence of description or exposition can be made lively and emphatic by substituting a transitive in the active voice for some such perfunctory expression as there is or could be heard.
In 1926, in the authoritative A Dictionary of Modern English Usage (1926), Henry W. Fowler recommended against transforming active voice forms into passive voice forms, because doing so “sometimes leads to bad grammar, false idiom, or clumsiness”.
In 1946, in the essay "Politics and the English Language" (1946), George Orwell recommended the active voice as an elementary principle of composition: "Never use the passive where you can use the active."
The Columbia Guide to Standard American English (1993) stated that:
Active voice makes subjects do something (to something); passive voice permits subjects to have something done to them (by someone or something). Some argue that active voice is more muscular, direct, and succinct, passive voice flabbier, more indirect, and wordier. If you want your words to seem impersonal, indirect, and noncommittal, passive is the choice, but otherwise, active voice is almost invariably likely to prove more effective.
Krista Ratcliffe notes the use of passives as an example of the role of grammar as "a link between words and magical conjuring [...]: passive voice mystifies accountability by erasing who or what performs an action [...].
For the passive voice
Jan Freeman, a reporter for The Boston Globe, said that the passive voice does have its uses, and that "all good writers use the passive voice". For example, despite Orwell's advice to avoid the passive, his "Politics and the English Language" (1946) employs passive voice for about 20 percent of its constructions. By comparison, a statistical study found about 13 percent passive constructions in newspapers and magazines.
Passive writing is not necessarily slack and indirect. Many famously vigorous passages use the passive voice, as in these examples:
- Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low; and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain. (King James Bible, Isaiah 40:4)
- Now is the winter of our discontent / Made glorious summer by this sun of York. (Shakespeare's Richard III, I.1, ll. 1–2)
- For of those to whom much is given, much is required. (John F. Kennedy's quotation of Luke 12:48 in his address to the Massachusetts legislature, 9 January 1961.)
- Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few. (Winston Churchill addressing the House of Commons, 20 August 1940.)
Merriam–Webster's Dictionary of English Usage (1994) recommends the passive voice when identifying the object (receiver) of the action is more important than the subject (agent), and when the agent is unknown, unimportant, or not worth mentioning:
- The child was struck by the car.
- The store was robbed last night.
- Plows should not be kept in the garage.
- Kennedy was elected president.
The principal criticism against the passive voice is its potential for evasion of responsibility. This is because a passive clause may omit the agent even where it is important:
- We had hoped to report on this problem, but the data were inadvertently deleted from our files.
(See weasel words.) However, the passive can also be used to emphasize the agent, and it may be better for that role than the active voice, because the end of a clause is the ideal place to put something you wish to emphasize:
- Don't you see? The patient was murdered by his own doctor
Similarly, the passive may be useful when modifying the agent, as heavily modified noun phrases also tend to occur last in a clause:
- The breakthrough was achieved by Burlingame and Evans, two researchers in the university's genetic engineering lab.
B. ACTIVE VOICE
Active voice is a grammatical voice common in many of the world's languages. It is the unmarked voice for clauses featuring a transitive verb in nominative–accusative languages, including Englishand most other Indo-European languages.
Active voice is used in a clause whose subject expresses the agent of the main verb. That is, the subject does the action designated by the verb. A sentence whose agent is marked as grammatical subject is called an active sentence. In contrast, a sentence in which the subject has the role of patient or theme is called a passive sentence, and its verb is expressed in passive voice. Many languages have both an active and a passive voice; this allows for greater flexibility in sentence construction, as either the semantic agent or patient may take the syntactic role of subject.
Examples
In the following examples the active and passive voice are illustrated with pairs of sentences using the same transitive verb.
| Language | Active voice | Passive voice |
|---|---|---|
| English | The hunter saw the deer. | The deer was seen. |
| French | Hugo a écrit ce livre. (Hugo wrote this book.) | Ce livre a été écrit par Hugo. (This book was written by Hugo.) |
| Japanese | 犬がかんだ。 (A dog bit [someone].) | 犬にかまれた。 (By a dog [I] was bitten.) |
INDONESIAN VERSION
Kalimat Aktif dan Kalimat Pasif
Kata kerja transitif mempunyai dua voice (ragam gramatikal), aktif dan pasif.
1) Bentuk aktif adalah orang, binatang, atau benda yang ditunjukkan oleh subjek dikatakan
melakukan sesuatu pada yang lain.
Contoh: Karim killed a tiger. Karim membunuh seekor harimau
2) Bentuk pasif adalah orang, binatang atau benda dikatakan menderita sesuatu dari sesuatu yang lain.
Contoh: A tiger was killed by Karim. Seekor harimau dibunuh oleh Karim
Bentuk pasif :
To Be + Past Participle
Aturan-aturan :
a) Kata kerja transitif tidak digunakan dalam bentuk pasif, kecuali kalau kata kerja itu menggunakan cognate object dalam bentuk aktif.
Aktif : She sang a fine song. Ia menyanyikan sebuah nyanyian yang merdu
Pasif : A fine song was sung by her. Sebuah nyanyian yang merdu dinyanyikan olehnya
b) Bilamana kalimat diubah dari bentuk aktif ke pasif, objek untuk kata kerja aktif menjadi subjek untuk kalimat kerja pasif.
objek untuk kata kerja aktif :
Aktif: Linda can make tarts. Linda dapat membuat kue tart
Subjek untuk kata kerja pasif :
Pasif: Tarts can be made by Linda
c) Retained object (objek yang tetap dipakai/dipertahankan dalam pasif)
Dua buah objek dalam kalimat aktif, ketika diubah menjadi kalimat pasif, masih tetap ada sebuah objek dipertahankan, objek ini dinamakan retained object. Objek ini mungkin objek tak langsung dari kata kerja aktif atau objek langsung dari kata kerja aktif.
Objek tak langsung dari kata kerja aktif
Kata Kerja aktif Kata kerja pasif
We gave him a prize A prize was given him by us
Objek langsung dari kata kerja aktif
Kata Kerja aktif Kata kerja pasif
We gave him a prize He was given a prize by us
Berikut contoh-contoh kalimat aktif yang dirubah menjadi kalimat pasif dalam bentuk tenses :
1) Simple present
Aktif John bites Mary John doesn’t bite Mary Does John bite Mary? What does John do? Who bites Mary? Who does John bite? | Pasif Mary is bitten by John Mary isn’t bitten by John Is Mary bitten by John? What is done by John? Who is Mary bitten by? Who is bitten by John? |
2) Simple continuous
Aktif John is biting Mary John isn’t biting Mary Is John biting Mary? What is John doing? Who is biting Mary? Who is John biting? | Pasif Mary is being bitten by John Mary isn’t being bitten by John Is Mary being bitten by John? What is being done by John? Who is Mary being bitten by? Who is being bitten by John? |
3) Present perfect
Aktif John has bitten Mary John hasn’t bitten Mary Has John bitten Mary? What has John done? Who has bitten Mary? Who has John bitten? | Pasif Mary has been bitten by John Mary hasn’t been bitten by John Has Mary been bitten by John? What has been done by John? Who has Mary been bitten by? Who has been bitten by John? |
4) Present perfect continuous
Aktif John has been biting Mary John hasn’t been biting Mary Has John been biting Mary? What has John been doing? Who has been biting Mary? Who has John been biting? | Pasif Mary has been being bitten by John Mary hasn’t been being bitten by John Has Mary been being bitten by John? What has been being done by John? Who has Mary been being bitten by? Who has been being bitten by John? |
5) Simple past
Aktif John bit Mary John didn’t bite Mary Did John bite Mary? What did John do? Who bit Mary? Who did John bite? | Pasif Mary was bitten by John Mary wasn’t bitten by John Was Mary bitten by John? What was done by John? Who was Mary bitten by? Who was bitten by John? |
6) Past continuous
Aktif John was biting Mary John wasn’t biting Mary Was John biting Mary? What was John doing? Who was biting Mary? Who was John biting? | Pasif Mary was being bitten by John Mary wasn’t being bitten by John Was Mary being bitten by John? What was being done by John? Who was Mary being bitten by? Who was being bitten by John? |
7) Past perfect
Aktif John had bitten Mary John hadn’t bitten Mary Had John bitten Mary? What had John done? Who had bitten Mary? Who had John bitten? | Pasif Mary had been bitten by John Mary hadn’t been bitten by John Had Mary been bitten by John? What had been done by John? Who had Mary been bitten by? Who had been bitten by John? |
Past perfect continuousAktif John had been biting Mary John hadn’t been biting Mary Had John been biting Mary? What had John been doing? Who had been biting Mary? Who had John been biting? | Pasif Mary had been being bitten by John Mary hadn’t been being bitten by John Had Mary been being bitten by John? What had been being done by John? Who had Mary been being bitten by? Who had been being bitten by John? |
9) Future
Aktif John will bite Mary John won’t bite Mary Will John bite Mary? What will John do? Who will bite Mary? Who will John bite? | Pasif Mary will be bitten by John Mary won’t be bitten by John Will Mary be bitten by John? What will be done by John? Who will Mary be bitten by? Who will be bitten by John? |
10) Future continuous
Aktif John will be biting Mary John won’t be biting Mary Will John be biting Mary? What will John be doing? Who will be biting Mary? Who will John be biting? | Pasif Mary will be being bitten by John Mary won’t be being bitten by John Will Mary be being bitten by John? What will be being done by John? Who will Mary be being bitten by? Who will be being bitten by John? |
11) Future perfect
Aktif John will have bitten Mary John won’t have bitten Mary Will John have bitten Mary? What will John have done? Who will have bitten Mary? Who will John have bitten? | Pasif Mary will have been bitten by John Mary won’t have been bitten by John Will Mary have been bitten by John? What will have been done by John? Who will Mary have been bitten by? Who will have been bitten by John? |
12) Future perfect continuous
Aktif John will have been biting Mary John won’t have been biting Mary Will John have been biting Mary? What will John have been doing? Who will have been biting Mary? Who will John have been biting? | Pasif Mary will have been being bitten by John Mary won’t have been being bitten by John Will Mary have been being bitten by John? What will have been being done by John? Who will Mary have been being bitten by? Who will have been being bitten by John? |
Kata-kata kerja transitif kadang-kadang mempunyai arti pasif walaupun bentuk kalimatnya adalah aktif :
a) Dengan komplemen
Sugar tastes sweet (pasif: sugar is sweet when it is tasted). Gula manis rasanya (gula manis bila
dirasakan)
b) Tanpa komplemen
The books is printing (pasif: the book is being printed). Buku itu sedang dicetak
The cows are milking (pasif: the cows are being milked). Sapi-sapi itu sedang diperah
Kesimpulan :
TENSES | ACTIVE | PASSIVE | |||||
Simple Present Present Continuous Present Perfect Past Tense Past Continuous Simple Future Be going to Past perfect Future perfect | Mary Mary Mary Mary Mary Mary Mary Mary Mary | Helps is helping has helped helped was helping will help is going to help had helped will have helped | John John John John John John John John John | John John John John John John John John John | is helped is being helped has been helped was helped was being helped will be helped is going to be helped had been helped will have been helped | by Mary by Mary by Mary by Mary by Mary by Mary by Mary by Mary by Mary | |
Perhatian: Semua bentuk pasif verbnya menggunakan bentuk ketiga (V3)
Daftar pustaka:
- http://englishtutorial.co.cc/?p=28
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_voice
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_passive_voice
CYNTHIA PERMATA SARI
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