Voice: Assertive, Interrogative & Imperative BBS 1st Year Business English

 

Active Passive Voice  

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Voice is a term used to show if the subject is doing or receiving the action. Sentence meaning is communicated through the proper use of verb voice. If we want to know the doer of the action, we use active voice and passive voice if we emphasize action. Voices of verbs can be of two types i.e. active and passive. Active Voice: If the agent acts, the verb is in active voice. Sentences that use active verbs identify the one acting. Examples:

a.      She sells some goods. ( Active voice – agent acts selling goods’)

b.     Manisha is designing a new building. (https://youtu.be/N7uvEllP5Jg )

c.      Mrs William has donated ₤ 100,000 to orphans’ charity.

d.     He will buy a lorry to transform the produced goods.

Passive Voice: A verb is passive if the subject of the sentence receives the action. We use passive: if the information is important in communication or if the subject is unknown or if a writer wants to soften the message to avoid accusation or to eliminate gender pronoun. Passive voice verb requires a form of be: is, am , are, was, were and a past participle verb. Examples:

a.      Devendra was notified of his eviction by a process server. (Emphasis on being notified not being evicted) 

b.     The books were audited before the merger. ( A biased statement was avoided by not ‘saying, ‘he audited the books.’)

c.      The list of applicants has been reviewed by a hiring committee. (The main point is what was reviewed)

Changing verb voice from active to passive does not change verb tense from present to past. The following steps show how active is changed into passive voice:

a.      We select the new subject. ( New subject is after the main verb)

b.     We place be verb-based in some subs. and tense of the verb.

c.      We add ‘being’ for continuous tense, ‘been’ for perfect and ‘be’ for future tense.

d.     If there is has / have / had + to + verb, we place has / have / had + to + be respectively.

e.      We put past participle (Verb #3).

f.       We add ‘by + agent’ if necessary.

Examples:

a.      She sells some goods every day.  Active Voice (New Sub. – some goods)

Some goods are sold by her every day. Passive Voice (Some goods – plural)

b.     Manisha was designing new buildings now. Active Voice (New Sub.)

New buildings were being designed by Manisha now. Passive Voice (being – Cont)

c.      She started a business last year. (Active in past tense)

A business was started by her last year. (be verb ‘was’ - past tense and singular. Sub.)

d.     The girl is cleaning the office room now. ( Active – continuous)

The office room is being cleaned by the girl now. ( Passive – being)

e.      Someone has sent a letter to our company. (Active in perfect tense)

A letter has been sent to our company. ( Passive: by + agent is a redundancy)

f.       They had gained more profit from their business. (Active- Past Perfect)

More profit had been gained by them from their business. ( Passive – been)

g.     I will buy some new computers for my office. ( Active- Future Simple )

Some new computers will be bought for my office. ( Passive – be )

h.     He will have received emails from new clients. ( Active – Future Perfect)

The emails will have been received by him from new clients. ( Passive – been)

i.       The girl has to make tea for the staff. ( Active – has to + verb)

Tea has to be made by the girl for the staff. ( Passive – has to be + PP)

Passive sentences can be constructed from interrogative and imperative sentences. The form of sentences will remain the same as it is not changed.

Examples:

a.      Does she send me emails daily? ( Active – Yes / No – Present Tense)

Am I sent emails daily by her? ( Passive–be verb ‘am’ because of Sub.)

b.     Have we invited the Chief Guest to inaugurate our program? ( Pre. Perf.)

Has the Chief Guest been invited to inaugurate our program? ( has – Sub)

c.      Will the supervisor increase the salary of workers? ( Active- Yes/No-Future)

Will the salary be increased for workers by the supervisor? ( Passive- be)

d.     Why was the girl calling all the workers all yesterday? ( Active – Past Cont.)

Why were all the workers being called by the girl all yesterday? ( Passive-being)

e.      How often will she print the documents in the office? ( Active – Wh-Future)

How often will the documents be printed by her in the office? ( Passive – be )

f.       When did anybody call me in the reference hall? ( Active- Wh-past tense)

When was I called to the reference hall? ( Passive – by + agent is not used)

Imperative sentences in Passive Voice

a.      Email all the clients to attend the meeting. (Imperative – verb ‘email’)

Let all the clients be emailed to attend the meeting. ( Passive: Let … be + PP)

b.     Let him supply the goods alone. ( Imperative with ‘Let’)

Let the goods be supplied by him alone. ( ‘by + agent’ is added)

c.      Don’t break the glass of that table. (Negative Imperative – Don't)

Let the glass of that table not be broken. (Passive-  not + be + PP)

Some exceptional cases in passive construction

We cannot change the verb into a passive voice in some sentences with an intransitive verb and a ‘be’ verb such as ‘be’ or ‘been’.

Examples:

a.      They have been selling the shares of their company. ( ‘been’ is already there)

b.     The boy will be buying some pens. ( ‘be’ is already there)

c.      They are sitting in the office room now. (Intransitive verb- ‘sitting’ and no object)

d.     The boys go to Hetauda for buying official items. ( Intransitive verb – ‘go’ and no object)

e.      When we change into passive voice, we do not write ‘by+ agent’ in the following cases:

f.       People speak English all over the world.  - English is spoken all over the world. ( Generic case)

g.     Nobody sends an invitation to them. - Invitation is not sent to them. ( Agent is vague)

h.     They publish a newspaper.  A newspaper is published by them. ( by + agent can be written) 

 

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