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[Guy Courchesne]

The passive voice.

I have seen soon-to-be teachers throw fits trying to wrap their heads around the passive voice. Every TEFL course I start, I treat the passive voice as a bit of a Holy Grail in grammar presentation/comprehension. I've tried a number of ways to explore it, for the most part with success. But, there's always a better way, says I, of such things.

How do the veterans out there interpret the passive voice? How are you teaching it, if at all, to your students?

I had one student-teacher outright deny its existence once. I'll bet she's out there still fuming over it, trying to avoid teaching it.

[thelmadatter]

Wow... you mean someone on this board actually TEACHES???? j/k

OK ... a writing teacher's point of view....

Constructing sentences in the passive voice correctly is grammatical but knowing how and when to use them is definitely a stylistic tool.

I can usually get my students to convert any (transitive) sentence into the passive voice by showing them a 4-step method, however unless it is in the simple past, many of them get a really puzzled look at the resulting (correct) passive sentence because nothing remotely similar exists in Spanish. And since grammar exercises are sentences out-of-context, they can be really hard to deal with.

Spanish does has a passive voice, but its use is extremely limited to things like newspaper articles and some types of academic writing (so they tell me). for example

Don Quixote was written by Cervantes.

Don Quijote fue escrito por Cervantes.

OK ... my students have little to no trouble with this. Hard to really show my 4-step method cuz I use arrows and stuff but its basically this.

Cervantes wrote Don Quixote.

1) Object to subject position

Don Quixote

2) Subject to end of sentence in optional "by" phrase

Don Quixote------------------------------(by Cervantes).

3) Take out the "action" from the verb construction and put it in past participle form.

orig.: _________ _____ + "ed" (past tense) _________

passive: Don Quixote-----------written (by Cervantes)

4) replace "missing" verb from original sentence with "to be" and put in front of past participle

orig.: _________ ______ be + "ed" ________
------------------------------------was

passive: Don Quixote was written (by Cervantes).



What freaks my students out is not this sentence but passive sentences like (esp. out of context)

The ball had been being kicked for hours by the team.

However, the same four rules still apply.

I find, however, that students have few problems when they read text with passive sentences because there is a lot of context.

As for teaching them when to use them... I tend to leave that for composition classes but basically the reasons are:

1) we don't know or dont care who did (does) the action (actor).

2) we want to avoid a direct accusation for some reason (The window was broken by John. is less accusatory than John broke the window.)
or
3) The normal direct object (recepient) is more important than the actor.

The boy was hit by the car. is preferred because we tend to put more importance on humans than on objects.

Spanish does take this social considerations into account, but often other constructions (esp. that which is called the "se-passive" to English speakers learning Spanish) are used. Plus they have the option of simply omitting the subject, which English almost never does.

So I get a lot of sentences in English where either the verb preceeds the subject ("se" construction transfer) or it just lacks a subject --- instead of a passive voice construction.


Complicated enough?

[MELEE]

Wow, I just wrapped up a unit on the passive voice yesterday! Are you spying on me??????

Its a very important structure for future engineers, which is what my students are. So I teach it just about every semester.
I've never had a problem with it. I attack it the same why I do most grammar, the How and Why approach. How do we form (grammar point)? and then Why do we use (grammar point)? In the case of the passive voice, how is pretty straight forward, to be + past participle. The biggest problem is for students to remember to correctly congegate to be. As for the the Why would be want to do something so crazy as to use the passive voice? We don't know the subject, or we want to push the focus over onto the object, usually in writting, or prepared speeches, it is not usually used in spontanious speaking.

It is very common in English that students may be reading in their professional fields. For the general audience, tourist information is a great source of the passive voice.

Monte Alban was built by the Zapotecos.
Hats and other palm products are produced in the Mixteco.
A new room will be added to the museum to house the recent acquisitions.

Guy, but doesn't Dave have a whole other set of forums for such questions?

[Guy Courchesne]

There's another forum for such things? Where?

I'll often use places, landmarks, or buildings to highlight the passive voice, going with the idea of the thing and not the person being more important than the people who built it, for example. I find it has wide usage, grabbing the Spanish ubicado to show it to students when I'm teaching it away from the teacher training course. Side note: ubicated would make a fine addition to the English language if it didn't resemble lubricated so closely.

Products and where they are made are also an easy introduction that translates fairly well, if incomplete often.

Hecho en Mexico referring to t-shirts, Jugo Maggi, and children.

[MELEE]

[Guy Courchesne]

Ah, yes I've seen that. Didn't occur to me. Still, I'd rather run it by the Mexico crew.

[ls650]

I find that, at least for the simple tenses, it's pretty easy. I've actually been teaching PV for the last couple of days.
What I find helps is to demonstrate with an obvious action, such as throwing a foam ball at the window or white board, and then writing a sentence on the board such as "The teacher threw the ball."

Then I take a pencil or pen from a student, and throw it (gently) at the window. I explain that to that student, the most important thing is not the action, but the personal object taken: "My pen was thrown by the teacher."

[PlayadelSoul]

I usually use some variation of having been the victim of a crime (my wallet was stolen, my computer has been hacked, etc.) and let the students know that I don't really care who did it. What I am concerned about is the object, itself. After that, I expand it to newpaper coverage of crimes, disasters, sporting events, etc. Works most of the time.

[M@tt]

i can't believe this thread is about native english teachers having problems understanding the passive voice IN ENGLISH. how sad.

you might enjoy the fact that there is also a middle voice in english. but i wouldn't bother naming it for your students, it will just confuse them.

the "how" part is purely mechanical. it can be explained in two minutes with a table of verb tenses. anyone who knows how to conjugate a verb shouldn't have trouble with it.

the why part is totally context-dependent except in the case of certain verbs that are almost always used in the passive voice. there are also verbs that have a different meaning when they're in the passive voice. those are all the fine points that make it fun. it's a powerful thing and i think it's really lame that spanish doesn't make better use of the passive voice. instead it does irritating things like a false-reflexive, which is much more confusing than the passive.

don't forget that victimhood is shown with "get" instead of "be."

here are some rocking resources for teachers and students:
Great for teacher training: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0838447252/sr=8-2/qid=1145636562/ref=pd_bbs_2/002-4759152-4279244?%5Fencoding=UTF8

Boring as hell but a classic: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0582517346/sr=1-1/qid=1145636673/ref=sr_1_1/002-4759152-4279244?%5Fencoding=UTF8&s=books

Sweetness for students and teachers as a reference: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/019431197X/ref=wl_it_dp/002-4759152-4279244?%5Fencoding=UTF8&colid=Q8AKPNKBQ6O4&coliid=I2AAGHX24H9PJD&v=glance&n=283155

Useful for teaching passive: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/013958661X/sr=1-1/qid=1145636951/ref=pd_bbs_1/002-4759152-4279244?%5Fencoding=UTF8&s=books

Have fun. Tell your students to read more.

[Guy Courchesne]

It's more about the first time one has to teach the passive voice and less about experienced teachers having trouble. Everyone here seems to be doing ok with it?

Here's a quick test to see who's on the ball. Identify the passive voice structure in the sentences below.

Acapulco is located one hour south of Chilpancinqo.

His leg is broken in 3 separate places.

She said Alex hadn't been heard from in quite awhile, then went on to discuss how much she missed being in Mexico.

Hockey is played on ice and is often thought of as Canada's sport.

Forty-seven bricklayers had found employment thus far.

[grahamcito]

I love teaching the passive, there's so much you can do with it. As examples, try this for 'Emphasis on the object':

Republican newspaper: Bush defeats Kerry
Democrat newspaper: Kerry is defeated by Bush

Shouldn't be difficult for Spanish speakers to grasp. The only tricky part of the passive is the Stative Passive (Mexico is located in the Americas). Oh, and passive gerunds/infinitives.

... and for 'Object not identified':

My car was stolen (like Playa suggests)

or (a personal favourite), Reagan's explanation for Iran-Contra:

"Mistakes were made."


but Melee

[MELEE]

but Melee

[fraup]

Ok, here are my responses to the "quiz":

Acapulco is located one hour south of Chilpancinqo.
His leg is broken in 3 separate places.
I'd say neither is passive. "Located" and "broken" are adjectives describing Acapulco and leg, respectively.

She said Alex hadn't been heard from in quite awhile, then went on to discuss how much she missed being in Mexico.
"Hadn't been heard from" is passive.
"She hadn't heard from Alex": active.

Hockey is played on ice and is often thought of as Canada's sport.
Two passives. One trick I use is to ask: can you change it to the passive-substitutes "they play hockey..." and "people often think..."?

Forty-seven bricklayers had found employment thus far.
No. This is the past perfect, although there is something odd about using "thus far." Just sounds funny.

When I reviewed passives with my Business English students we focused on its use in sentences such as
Thirty new salespeople are going to be hired.
Last month's profits won't be published until later.
The economy was hit by recession last year.
The employees had been told they wouldn't lose their jobs as a
result of the merger, but that was a lie...

And the use of the passive to avoid blame, of course. GWB is good at these. I am particularly fond of "lives have been lost ", which sounds as though some absentminded being misplaced a few thousand humans.

[Guy Courchesne]

Gold star to you! Thus far is perhaps Canadian? Eastern Canadian? Just me? Imagine a foreman asking about the progress of a recruiting drive to hire bricklayers.

Located is tricky. I agree that it appears as an adjective in the example.

But...

Acapulco can be located quite easily from orbit.

My easy trick, using text first, is to find the verb 'to be' in some form and see what follows. Starting with simple sentences of course.

I think the passive is often avoided (despite my using it right here) in spontaneous speech too, or maybe people just aren't aware of how much it is used.

[grahamcito]

One of the problems I see with teaching the passive is that on one hand, all tenses are possible with the passive, so it makes a kind of sense to teach/study it only after all the tenses - or at least all the important ones.

But on the other hand, we use it in basic, extremely common structures and phrases that elementary/'pre-intermediate' learners should be expected to know.

Eg. I was born in 19**; I got married last year; etc.

So when do you's all teach the passive? At my school, we save it for after the tenses, and teach common usages (like 'I was born...') as functional phrases.


Another problem seems to be the Stative Passive, which is what I'd call 'Acapulco is located in Guerrero'. Is this - like Guy says - just 'to be' plus participle adjective? or a genuine passive?