LESSON SIX

LESSON SIX

But
When should the passive voice of the verb be used?

WHEN YOU CAN AND SHOULD USE PASSIVE VERBS

Since the passive voice of verbs exists, it is safe to say that there must be a use for that voice.

When we use the passive voice of a verb in a sentence, we put emphasis on the person or thing that receives the action rather than the person or thing performing the action.

USE the passive voice in situations in which the speaker does not know or does not wish to say who performed the action.

ACTIVE Someone has stolen my watch.

PASSIVE My watch has been stolen. (The focus is on the watch.)

PASSIVE The bank was robbed. (In a mystery or detective novel, it would be ridiculous to say “Sam Jones robbed the bank.” You just destroyed the plot.)

PASSIVE Many books and articles have been written on the Civil War. (It would tedious to write the sentence with all the possible authors and finish the sentence with wrote many books and articles on the Civil War.)

Do not shift illogically shift from the active voice to the passive voice in a sentence.

INCORRECT As we came over the hill, a deer was seen.

CORRECT As we came over the hill, we saw a deer.

DISCUSSION TOPIC
In no more than five sentences, describe yourself without using any form of the verb “to be.” (That means you can’t use “is, be, am, are, was, were, being, been.”)

ASSIGNMENT
PART I – Write the verb in each sentence and identify its voice.

1. In 1947 Anne Frank’s diary was discovered and published.
2. William Faulkner was awarded the prize for literature by the Novel Committee in 1949.
3. French oceanographer Jacques Cousteau designed the first aqualung.
4. Glaciers gouged out many of the valleys, lakes, and ponds of New England.
5. The first successful heart transplant was performed by Dr. Christiaan Barnard in Cape Town, South Africa.
6. In 1923, a strong earthquake in Japan literally shook radishes out of the ground.
7. The Great Pyramid of Cheops covers thirteen acres.
8. Financial contributions are always welcomed by charitable organizations.
9. Basketball was invented in 1891by a YMCA worker named James Naismith.
10. In 1976, a cake weighing 70,000 pounds was baked in Baltimore as part of the celebration of the American Bicentennial.

PART II – Rewrite each sentence, changing the voice of the verb. You will have to add words to some of the sentences.

1. The hand-cranked record players of the late 1800s and early 1900s were called gramophones.
2. Emile Berliner produced the first gramophone that most people could afford.
3. His Seven-Inch Gramophone was sold by stores for ten dollars.
4. Users were instructed by the manufacturer to turn the crank seventy times per minute.
5. Hand-cranked machines were replaced by motor-controlled turntables in 1925.
6. The ratios of the reduction gears on the motors determined the possible speeds for records.
7. Five 78 RPM records were required to record all the movements of a symphony.
8. The microgroove was created by Peter Goldmark at Columbia Records.
9. The microgroove 33 1/3 RPM long-playing record enabled record makers to put more sound on a smaller disc.
10. One twelve-inch microgroove LP record can include a whole symphony.