Lecture 14
Passive Voice (I)
Teaching Contents
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14.1 Active sentence and passive
sentence
14.2 Passive voice of phrasal
verbs
14.3 Passive voice of non-finite
verbs
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14.1 Active sentence and passive
sentence
A sentence/clause whose predicator (predicate
verb) is active is called an “active sentence”,
and a sentence/clause whose predicator is
passive is called a “passive sentence”. The
subject in the active sentence is the agent or
doer of an action, and in the passive the
recipient of the action.
Rules of changing into the passive
Most of the SVO/SVOO/SVOC patterns can be
made passive, following the rules below:
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a) In the first pattern, the active object
becomes the passive subject, the
active verb phrase becomes the
passive verb phrase, the active subject
becomes the passive agent and a
prepositional by is introduced before
the agent. The by-phrase is not
necessary.
b) If there is a modal or semi-auxiliary
in the active verb phrase, it is the
infinitive that follows that is made
passive
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c) In the SVOO , there are two possible
passive forms: either the indirect object
or the direct object becomes the subject
of the passive sentence. The former is
preferred.
d) In the SVOC, the object complement
becomes the subject complement of the
passive sentence apart from the other
changes.
e.g. We have painted the windows white.
 The windows have been painted
white.
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2) Voice constraints
Not all the active sentences can be made
passive. Some transitive or stative verbs,
for example, do not occur in the passive
e.g. This plane holds about 150 people.
a) Transitive verbs with reflexive or
reciprocal objects do not passivize.
We should help each other.
b) Some “verb + noun” combinations,
which have the force of an intransitive
verb, can never take the passive.
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c) There is no active transformation for the
following seemingly passive sentences
e.g. He is gone = He has gone.
They are finished. = They have finished. be
finished可用于被动语态，亦可用系表结构。
1)当主语是表事物的名词或代词时，finished具有被动
意义。
e.g. The war was nearly finished.
The house will soon be finished.
2)当主语是表人的名词或代词时，finished常具有主动
意义，be finished表动作的结果或状态。
e.g. At last I was finished on time. 按时完工了。
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14.2 Passive voice of phrasal verbs
1) Passive voice of basic phrasal verb
Phrasal verbs have three basic forms:
verb + preposition, verb + adverb
particle and verb + adverb particle +
preposition. In the passive transformation,
these forms are mostly treated as singleword verbs, and both the adverb particle
and the preposition should remain
immediately after the verb.
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2) Passive voice of “verb + noun +
preposition”
This structure may have two passive
possibilities. The first is treat the
combination as a single transitive verb;
the second is to treat it as “verb + object
+ preposition”, and put the whole
prepositional phrase after the passive
verb.
e.g. He took great care of his books.
 His books were taken great care of.
Great care was taken of his books.
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14.3 Passive voice of non-finite
verbs
English verbs have three non-finite
forms: the infinitive, the –ing participle,
and the –ed participle, of which the first
two may occur in the passive.
1) Passive infinitive
When the logical subject of the infinitive
is the recipient of an action, the infinitive
should take the passive form. The logical
subject of the passive infinitive need not
be expressed if the infinitive shares the
subject with the main clause
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e.g. I’m proud to be thus chosen.
If the infinitive does not share the subject
with the main clause, the logical subject
of the passive infinitive must be
expressed.
e.g. It’s impossible for lost time to be
made up.
2) Passive –ing participle
When the logical subject of the –ing
participle is the recipient of an action, the
–ing participle should take the passive
form.
e.g. I object to being kept waiting.
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If the –ing participle does not share the
subject with the main clause, the logical
subject must be expressed.
e.g. The workers were proud of their
products being praised highly by the
buying public.
When a passive –ing participle with a
personal pronoun as its own subject
functions as the object or prepositional
complementation, the personal pronoun
can occur either in the objective or in the
genitive case.
e.g. I insisted on him/his being invited.
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3) Contrast between passive infinitive and
passive –ing participle
Both function as the object of transitive verbs.
Some verbs can only collocate with the
infinitive or with the –ing participle, some or
with both of them without change of meaning
except for a few cases where there is difference
semantically.
e.g. He wants to be invited.
He enjoys being flattered.
He forgot to be photographed.
He forgot being photographed.
If a passive non-finite verb functions as
prepositional complementation or as object of a
phrasal verb, it can only be an –ing form.