OK, I thought I had a handle on passive voice but a critiquer gave me feedback recently and marked lots of sentences passive that I did not think qualified. Help, please!
...She looked from the thick purple fluid oozing from Risa’s leg to the needle that had caused the injury. The needle was huge; something out of a child’s nightmare of a doctor’s visit, and it was full of an unidentifiable dark green fluid...
Are either of these sentences passive? I'm trying to put subjects together with verbs and I'm seeing She and looked, it was she that looked, the needle caused, it did indeed perform that action...the needle was huge....grrrr, I thought I understood this so I'm really frustrated now. Even MS Word doesn't say this is passive.
Posted by Kolona (Member # 1438) on :
Those aren't passive, Christine. The two 'wases' are state of being verbs, and 'had' is a helping verb here. While it is true it's better to avoid too many being verbs since they're not considered especially strong, they do have their place -- as do passive verbs, for that matter. Helping verbs get a bum rap and all they're doing is helping. Talk about ingratitude.
Lots of people see 'was' or 'had' and immediately assume passive, but, as we've been enlightened several times on these threads and which you've rightly assessed, passive has to do with whether or not the subject is acting or being acted upon.
Posted by Gen (Member # 1868) on :
They're not passive. It's just that it's very easy to assume is and was are usually in passive constructions... I once had an English teacher who seemed to circle every single to be verb as passive voice. ("Can't I just say 'the plant is green'?" "No, no, no, no, terribly passive. 'The plant glistened greenly'. That's the ticket.")
Posted by Christine (Member # 1646) on :
Thanks you guys! I feel a little better now. I probably do overuse the verb 'to be', but I don't find it to be nearly as offensive as some of the afforementioned English teachers do. Sometimes a plant really is green, and no action verbs exist to describe that greeness. (Ha! I almost wrote there are no action verbs....I'm getting better already )
[This message has been edited by Christine (edited January 27, 2004).]
[This message has been edited by Christine (edited January 27, 2004).]
Posted by Survivor (Member # 213) on :
And of course, sometimes plants really are passive, and not even in an aggressive way.
Posted by Kathleen Dalton Woodbury (Member # 59) on :
Christine, tell your critiquer that "was" in a sentence may mean the sentence is "static" (or "stative" if you will) but it doesn't necessarily mean the sentence is "passive."
So many people mix this up, and it could easily become a pet peeve. I try to remain calm about it, though.
Posted by Jules (Member # 1658) on :
quote:I probably do overuse the verb 'to be'
Try writing an entire story without using it. Its very hard, but possible, and will probably help when you go back to normal writing...
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