+141.+ Notice carefully the following sentences; select the subjects in
these sentences which show _who_ or _what_ performed the action; select
the subjects that show _who_ or _what_ receives the action. Do you
notice any difference in the meaning of these sentences? Do you notice
any difference in their form?
The engine struck the man.
The man was struck by the engine.
The system enslaves men.
Men are enslaved by the system.
Leaders often betray the people.
The people are often betrayed by leaders.
Let us look carefully at the first two sentences. You remember when we
studied transitive verbs we found that every transitive verb had an
_object_ which was the receiver of the action expressed in the verb. Now
you notice in this first sentence, _The engine struck the man_, we have
the transitive verb _struck_. _Engine_ is the subject of the verb and
_man_ is the object of the verb, the receiver of the action expressed by
the verb _struck_.
Now in the sentence, _The man was struck by the engine_, we have the
same thought expressed but in a different manner. The word _man_, which
was the object of the verb _struck_ in the first sentence, has now
become the subject of the sentence, and we have changed our verb form
from _struck_ to _was struck_. In the first sentence of the subject,
_engine_ was the _actor_. In the second sentence, _The man was struck by
the engine_, the subject of the sentence, _man_, is the _receiver_ of
the action expressed in the verb.
+142.+ So we have thus changed the verb form from _struck_ to _was
struck_ to indicate that the subject of the verb is the receiver of the
action. _Struck_ is called the active form of the verb because the
subject of the verb is the actor. _Was struck_ is called the passive
form of the verb because the subject receives the action. Passive means
_receiving_. In the passive form the subject is the receiver of the
action expressed in the verb.
+143.+ You remember that complete verbs have no object or complement,
therefore it would follow that they cannot be put in the passive form
for there is no object to become the receiver of the action. Take the
complete verb, _sleep_, for example. We do not _sleep_ anything, hence
_sleep_ has no passive form for there is no object which can be used as
the subject, the receiver of the action.
+Only transitive verbs can be put into the passive form.+ Remember that
a transitive verb in the passive form is one that represents its subject
as receiving the action.
The present, past, future and all the perfect time forms of transitive
verbs can be changed from active to passive. The progressive time forms
can be changed into the passive, but it makes an awkward construction
and should be avoided as much as possible. Occasionally, however, we
find it worth our while to use these forms, as for example:
The book is being written by the man.
This is the passive form of the present progressive, _The man is writing
a book_.
The book was being written by the man.
This is the passive form of the past progressive, _The man was writing
the book_.
+144.+ The future progressive passive is awkward, and the present and
past progressive forms are the only forms we find used in the passive.
The best writers use them sparingly for we can usually say the same
thing by using the active form of the verb and have a sentence which
sounds much better.