Plain English

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.

Exercise 2

All the verbs in the following sentences are transitive verbs in the active form. Rewrite each sentence, putting the verb into the passive form and making the object of the active verb the subject of the passive verb; as, for example, the first sentence should be rewritten as follows:

War on Russia was declared by Germany on August 1, 1914.

1. Germany declared war on Russia, August 1, 1914.

2. Who will sign the Emancipation Proclamation of the Proletariat?

3. Marx and Engels wrote the Communist Manifesto.

4. Spain murdered Francisco Ferrer, October 13, 1909.

5. We celebrate the first of May as International Labor Day.

6. The people of Paris stormed the Bastille, July 14, 1789.

7. Wat Tyler was leading the English workers in rebellion against the King when the Mayor of London stabbed him in 1381.

8. The Inquisition burned Bruno at the stake for heresy in 1600.

9. The Paris Commune followed the German siege of Paris in 1871.

SUMMARY

145. Now let us take the verb see and name all the time forms which we can describe with the changes in the verb forms which we have learned to make and also with the verb phrases which we can construct with the help of the verbs, be, have, shall and will.

First, we want to express the present, what is happening now, and we want to put it in both the active and passive forms, so we say:

Note that the only change in the verb form in the present ACTIVE is the s-form for the third person singular. In the present passive the only change is the special form of the verb be for the first and third persons, singular.

When we want to tell what occurred yesterday or some time in the past, stated in the active and passive form, we say:

We have one other division of time which we must express—the future. Primitive man doubtless lived principally in the present, but with the development of memory and the means of recording events by a written language, he was able to make the deeds and achievements of the past a vital part of his life. But not until the faculty of thinking developed was the mind able to project itself into the future and make tomorrow the hope of today. Future time expresses hope, desire, growth.

Then you remember we had to devise a way of describing an action perfected or completed at the present or at some time in the past or at some time in the future—so we have present perfect, past perfect and future perfect.

146. But these are not all the phases of time which we can express. We have progressive, continuous action. So each of these six time forms has a progressive form.

Only the Present and Past Progressive forms have a passive form. The rest of the Progressive forms are expressed in the active forms only.

Exercise 3

Write the four following sentences in their active and passive forms, as the sentence, War sweeps the earth, is written.

1. Education gives power.

2. Knowledge frees men.

3. Labor unions help the workers.

4. The people seek justice.

Exercise 4

Underscore all the verbs and verb phrases in the following quotation. Write all the time forms of the transitive verb, lose, as the time forms of the verb see are written in the foregoing table.

When we study the animal world and try to explain to ourselves that struggle for existence which is maintained by each living being against adverse circumstances and against its enemies, we realize that the more the principles of solidarity and equality are developed in an animal society, and have become habitual to it, the more chance it has of surviving and coming triumphantly out of the struggle against hardships and foes. The more thoroughly each member of the society feels his solidarity with each other member of the society, the more completely are developed in all of them those two qualities which are the main factors of all progress; courage, on the one hand, and, on the other, free individual initiative. And, on the contrary, the more any animal society, or little group of animals, loses this feeling of solidarity—which may chance as the result of exceptional scarcity or else of exceptional plenty—the more the two other factors of progress, courage and individual initiative, diminish; in the end they disappear, and the society falls into decay and sinks before its foes. Without mutual confidence no struggle is possible; there is no courage, no initiative, no solidarity—and no victory!—Kropotkin.

SPELLING

LESSON 8

In pronouncing words of more than one syllable we always lay a little greater stress upon one syllable of the word; that is, that syllable receives the emphasis of the voice so as to make it more prominent than the other syllables. This is called accent, and the syllable which receives the special stress is called the accented syllable.

Accent is the stress of the voice upon one syllable of the word.