CHAPTER 6 ACTIVE AND PASSIVE VOICES

Specific instructional aims

Students are able to understand, differentiate, and use the active and passive sentences correctly.

Sub topics

· Active voice (present, past, future, continuous, perfect)

· Passive voice (present, past, future, continuous, perfect)

The voice of verb shows whether the sentence is active or passive. The sentence is active if an action is performed by the subject, and the sentence is passive if an action was performed on the subject. The active voice is used in making a straight forward statement about an action, i.e. the “doer” of the action is the subject of the sentence. In the passive voice, the “doer” of the action is not important because the subject of the passive sentence generally obvious to everyone. Therefore, in a passive sentence the subject is often omitted. However, when it is important to show the subject, a prepositional word “by” is used.

Please notice on the use of the active and passive voice in some basic sentences as indicated in the following sections.

Simple tenses

Active : Subject + verb (type I)

Passive : Subject + verb to be + verb (type III)

Examples:

A : Jono grows some flowers in his garden.

P : Some flowers are grown by Jono in his garden.

A : We kill the weeds with a herbicide.

P : The weeds are killed with a herbicide.

A : Farmers harvested their rice using “ani-ani”.

P : The rice were harvested using “ani-ani”.

A : Ali and Joko attended the agricultural extension yesterday.

P : The agricultural extension was attended by Ali and Joko yesterday.

A : Candra will present the agricultural research plan tomorrow.

P : The agricultural research plant will be presented tomorrow.

A : We are going to discuss the cause of production loss today.

P : The cause of production loss is going to be discussed today.

Continuous tenses

Active : Subject + verb to be + verb (type I) + ing

Passive : Subject + verb to be + being + verb (type III)

Examples:

A : Santi is planting shallots in the glasshouse.

P : Shallots are being planted in the glasshouse.

A : Farmers are clearing weeds manually.

P : The weeds are being cleared manually.

A : Jono was climbing the tree when suddenly the branch broke.

P : The tree was being climbed by Jono when suddenly the branch broke.

A : The soil scientists were surveying the area when the landslide happened.

P : The area was being surveyed when the landslide happened.

Perfect tenses

Active : Subject + have/has + verb (type III)

Passive : Subject + have/has + been + verb (type III)

Examples:

A : The young farmer has harvested his soybean two days ago.

P : The soybean has been harvested two days ago.

A : In order to increase soil fertility, farmers have used manure.

P : Manure has been used in order to increase soil fertility.

A : Farmers in Java had used buffaloes for land cultivation since many years .

P : Buffaloes had been used for land cultivation since many years.

A : The local government had provided more funds for agricultural sector.

P : More funds had been provided for agricultural sector.

Sentence transformation

The negation in passive voice is performed in the usual manner, i.e. by placing the word not after the verb to be (auxiliary verb). Whereas the interrogative form is performed by placing the verb to be at the beginning of a sentence followed by the subject and past participle (verb type III).

Examples:

1. The area was covered by smoke from bush fire.

- The area was not covered by smoke from bush fire.

- Was the area covered by smoke from bush fire?

2. Plant pests and diseases can be prevented by spraying pesticide.

- Plant pests and diseases can not be prevented by spraying pesticide

- Can plant pests and diseases be prevented by spraying pesticide?

3. The new apple clones have been created via plant biotechnology.

- The new apple clones have not been created via plant biotechnology.

- Have the new apple clones been created via plant biotechnology?

4. Soil fertility is being investigated by soil scientists from Unja.

- The soil fertility is not being investigated by soil scientists from Unja.

- Is the soil fertility is being investigated by soil scientists from Unja?

5. The plant tissue culture technique is applied widely in plant breeding.

- The plant tissue culture technique is not applied widely in plant breeding.

- Is the plant tissue culture technique applied widely in plant breeding?

Students’ activity

Assignment 1

Change the following sentences into passive voice or active voice. Please look carefully on the verbs used.

1. Teak (Tectona grandis) are planted in East Java.

2. Scientists are studying agroforestry and its benefit to farmers in Jambi.

3. The Department of Forestry grows iron wood (Eusideroxylon zwagerii) in Senami restricted area.

4. My tomato plants were attacked by root disease.

5. Forty percent of rice field in Jambi have been destroyed by flood.

6. In 2000, the CVPD disease had caused total production loss of approximately 2 billions rupiah.

7. Water in our area is contaminated by pesticide.

8. The Agricultural Faculty Unja will open Forestry Department next year.

9. Farmers in Tanjung Jabung has exported coconut oil to China since 1998.

10. During harvest time, birds eat the rice in the rice field.

Assignment 2

Read the following passage carefully and identify the verbs in passive voice.

Crop Protection Using Chemical Dusts

The problem of applying chemicals for crop protection is greater than of spreading fertilizers. This is because a very small amount of active ingredient has to be applied to a large crop area, often to a particular part of the plant where it can be most effective. These active materials are formulated for application in a number of ways. However, dusting is the method which will be discussed in this passage. In dusting, the finely ground active ingredient, is blended down with a local filler such as a talc or clay to give a dust, usually containing 2 – 4% of active ingredient. This can be applied to the crops by hand dusters, tractor drawn dusters that blow the dust out through a boom, aircraft, or by drift dusting. The characteristics of the finished blended dust should be determined by the method of application. However, in the tropical area such as Indonesia, there is a limited choice of fillers.

Vocabulary list

Active ingredient = bahan aktif

Bush fire = kebakaran hutan

Chemicals = bahan-bahan kimia

Clay = liat (tanah liat)

Crop protection = perlindungan tanaman

Department of Forestry = Jurusan Kehutanan

Dusting = penyemprotan partikel debu

Filler = bahan pengisi

Glasshouse = rumah kaca

Herbicide = herbisida (racun pembasmi gulma)

Iron wood = tanaman bulian (kayu bulian)

Landslide = tanah longsor

Manure = pupuk kandang

Root disease = penyakit akar

Shallot = bawang daun

Talc = talek (bahan mineral pembuat tepung talek)

Teak = tanaman jati (kayu jati)

penulis :

Prof.Dr.H.Zulkarnain

SUMBER AJARAN

bahan ajaran ACTIVE AND PASSIVE VOICES

CHAPTER 6

ACTIVE AND PASSIVE VOICES

Specific instructional aims