What constitutes the passive-voice form in English - 5

LAST week, in the fourth part of my explanation on what constitutes the passive- voice form in English, I showed that the word “killed” in the sentence “Five people have been

killed” functions as a verb in the past participle and is integral to the passive- voice form “have been killed.” This was to correct the argument of a member of Jose Carillo’s English Forum, Mwita Chacha, that the word “killed” in that sentence could only be an adjective.

I then demonstrated that a passive-voice sentence using an intransitive verb can’t be converted into the active voice if the doer of the action isn’t specified. Try and try as we might, I said, there’s absolutely no way these three sentences can be rendered in the active voice: “The seat was taken.” “The lovers were seen kissing.” “The lazy clerks were berated.”

But if the doer of the action is specified, it becomes simplicity itself to construct those sentences in the active voice: “The amorous couple took the seat.” “The private detective saw the lovers kissing.” “Their manager berated the lazy clerks.” Note, though, that in these active-voice constructions, the intransitive verbs have meta- morphosed into transitive verbs. Indeed, many English verbs can become transitive or intransitive depending on how they are used in a sentence.

Some verbs are intransitive through and through, however, and as such they can never take a direct object. The verbs “appear,” “arrive,” and “seem” in the following active-voice sentences are such verbs: “The comet appeared.” “The tourists arrived at noon.” “The guest seemed upset.” These sentences can’t be rendered in the passive voice no matter how hard we try. That’s just the way it is with most of the result or outcome verbs in English. Being intransitive verbs, they can’t pass on their action to anything in the sentence— meaning that they can’t have a direct object or take one.

Now here’s a related question about verbs posed by a new Forum member who goes by the username Happy Wifey:

“In technical documentation, I always encounter the following usage: ‘is + past tense of verb,’ ‘are + past tense of verb.’ Is this correct or acceptable?

“For example: ‘1. Click the Add button. The user is added to the group.’ ‘1. Click the Add button. The user was added to the group.’ “‘ The following sections are

modified:’ ‘The following sections were modified:’” My reply to Happy Wifey: Ordinarily, the grammatically correct versions of the sentences you presented are as follows:

“The user was added to the group.” (Not “The user is added to the group.”) “The following sections were

modified:” (Not “The following

sections are modified:”)

Because the action was done and completed in the past, the passive- voice past tense of the verb is used instead of the activevoice present tense form.

However, the linking verb can be used in the present tense if we modify those passive-voice sentences into sentences denoting a state or condition:

“The user is an added element to the group.”

“The following sections are modified versions of the original.”

In such constructions, the phrase that follows the linking verb functions as an adjective describing the subject. No action is involved in both sentences.

Now the question is: Wouldn’t it be possible to use the active-voice, present-tense constructions at all?

Yes, there’s a special case. It’s when the speaker or writer is making the statement at the very moment of utterance or the act of writing, as in a first- person, present-tense narrative like this:

“Let me describe to you how e-groups are organized in Alpha Company. First, the provider team is formed. Then the user is

added to the group...” This, of course, is precisely the nature of the technical documentation statements you provided. They are online instructions in real time, so the present-tense, active-voice construction is perfectly acceptable in both cases.