IS: Lesson - Introduction to the Passive Voice

Image: an illustration of man searching for a book

Introduction to the Passive Voice

Before proceeding to an explanation of how participles are translated, it is necessary to discuss a particular construction called the passive voice. Passive voice is used when the subject or antecedent does not perform the action of the verb. This is the opposite of active voice, in which the subject is also the actor.

Example:

  • Active: In the image, a man is taking down a scroll from the shelf.
  • Passive: In the image, a scroll is being taken down from the shelf.

The Romans were quite fond of passive voice and used it far more frequently than English does, but English does use the passive voice when forming its perfect participle, just like Latin. Let's examine what passive voice is before we continue.

Passive Does Not Mean Weak

The example above demonstrates one way that English expresses the passive voice. Note that the phrase is no weaker than the active version (the man is taking down a scroll), but instead changes the focus of the phrase to the scroll.

When using the grammatical term passive voice, we are not referring to the tone of a clause, nor does the term provide any type of value judgement on the clause in question. Instead, it is a technical term used in grammar, distinguishing two types of clauses: Active Voice clause and Passive Voice clause.

Verb Characteristics: Voice

Name of Voice

Explanation

Examples

Active Voice

In a clause using active voice, the subject or modified noun/antecedent is the agent, or performer, of an action.
  • Marcus carries
    • Marcus is the one performing the action "carry"

Passive Voice

In a clause using passive voice, the subject or modified noun/antecedent is not the agent of the action, but instead, is the receiver of the action
  • Marcus is carried
    • Marcus is having the action "carry" performed on him

In English, we most often see the passive voice in the form of participles:

  1. the beloved sister
    • Beloved refers to sister (making sister the antecedent of the participle), but someone else loves the sister (she is not the one who loves).
  2. the movie which was watched
    • Watched refers to the movie, but the movie did not perform the watching, instead some unnamed actor was watching.

That last note - that there can be an unnamed actor - is the source of most of the prohibitions against using the Passive Voice in English (you may very well have heard a teacher say, "Please avoid the passive voice!"). The Romans had no such concerns and used the passive voice frequently. As you work on reading and translating verbs that are in the passive voice, pay attention to the ways in which these new forms can be handled.

For now, we will examine the passive voice as it relates to participles. In a later module, we will expand our understanding of the passive voice to include regular indicative verb forms.

Image courtesy of VRoma Links to an external site..