An active sentence means that the subject is the one performing the action, that he is the one being active in the sentence. A passive sentence is a sentence where the action is being performed onto the subject, who is passively enduring the action being done upon it. If you have a sentence for which you can not tell if it is passive or active, just ask yourself if the subject's the one doing the action or is the action being done to the subject.

Since this is a site for writers, I assume you are more interested in the practical use of the passive and active voices than it's grammatical explanation. A lot of people will tell you that using passive voice is bad. Here, I must stand in defence of the passive voice. Using passive voice is not by definition bad. Passive has its uses and its purpose. It is like saying antibiotics are bad. Sure, if you use antibiotics for every little soar throat, you're not doing yourself any favours, but in certain conditions, they are the only thing that can help you. The same goes for passive voice. The trick is to know when to use it.

Here is the example where a passive voice is considered "weak":

The battle was lost. The city was ransacked, the men slaughtered and women raped or sold to slavery.

Firstly, my apologies to the women in the example. If you look at the sentences, you will notice that they're not exactly bursting with action. Yes, horrible things are happening, but it doesn't feel energetic. That's because all the action is being done to a passive subject. If we change it to:

They won the battle. They ransacked the city, slaughtered the men and raped the women or sold them to slavery.

This example is much more energetic. It's because the subject is actively participating in the action. It is causing it to happen. This is where the scene profits from the use of active voice, and this is the reason they say passive is "bad". If you need a dynamic, active scene, use active voice when ever you can.

But this does not mean passive really is bad. Passive has its uses. The obvious ones being when we don't know or care who is doing the action, or it's implied:

It has already been done.



The Cathedral was built in sixteen century.

It is usually implied who builds cathedrals - builders commissioned by the Church. Or we simply don't care, we are interested in the cathedral and when it was built, not in those who built it.

The less obvious, more subtle uses of passive are when you don't want the action to be dynamic. Perhaps you want to create a feeling of inaction, of subject's helplessness or unwillingness to take the action.

As he was being beaten, the only thing he could do was to curse his assailants in his mind.



Too drunk to stand, he was carried off to his room.

Sure, They carried him off to his room is more dynamic, more active, but it's not what we want here. We want to show the subject's inability to perform the action, to emphasize his passiveness.

The sentence "The city was ransacked, the men slaughtered and women raped or sold to slavery." implies a certain helplessness of the city and it's people to defend themselves from the fate that has befallen them. Maybe that's more important to us in that moment than the action. It can also depend on whose side we are, the winning side or the loosing side. So, the passive has it's uses. A skilled writer knows when to turn a "weakness" into an advantage.

---

(0)

Login to post a comment!