8.L.03 Strategically Use Active/Passive Voice and Mood to Achieve Particular Effect

Writing Objective 8.L.03

The Highly Proficient student can strategically use verbs in the active and passive voice and in the conditional and subjunctive mood to achieve particular effects (e.g., emphasizing the actor or the action; expressing uncertainty or describing a state contrary to fact).

Essential Questions

★ What are active and passive voice?

★ What are conditional and subjunctive moods? How can using them achieve a particular effect?

What do we mean by "voice"?

Voice is the form of a verb that shows whether the subject of a sentence does the action (= the active voice) or is affected by it (= the passive voice).

Examples:

  • In the sentence "James hit the ball," the verb "hit" is in the active voice. In other words, the form "hit" shows that the subject (James) did the action. The sentence "James hit the ball" is an active sentence.

  • In the sentence "The ball was hit by James," the verb "was hit" is in the passive voice. In other words, the form "was hit" shows that the subject (The ball) was affected by the action. The sentence "The ball was hit by James" is a passive sentence.

  • What do "active" and "passive" mean?

  • In the active voice, the agent (person/thing doing the action) is the subject of the sentence.

  • For example: The dog bit the mailman.


  • Now, in the passive voice, the agent is either not known or is less important.

  • For example: The mailman was bitten.

Some real active and passive voice examples

The passive voice is more common in written English and is often avoided in spoken English.

It is often used in newspapers, and in academic writing and reports.

Examples:

  • Taxes to be raised next year. (newspaper headline)

  • This is the infinitive passive.


  • The swimming pool is closed because it is being cleaned. (a notice)

  • This is the present progressive passive.


  • The house was built in 1898.

  • This is the simple past passive.


  • The concert tonight has been canceled because the guitarist is sick.

  • This is the present perfect passive.


  • Your groceries will be delivered this afternoon.

  • This is the future passive (using will.)

In all of these examples, we either don't know who is performing / performed / will perform the action, or it isn't important.

Compare the above sentences with the following real examples of the active voice:

  • The government has decided to raise taxes next year.

  • (The government performed the action.)

  • Cleaners are working in this area. Please be careful.

  • They are building a house across the road from my office.

(Here, spoken English is avoiding the passive by using "They are" instead. This is very common.)

  • I'm very disappointed they've canceled the concert tonight.

Conditional Tenses & Subjunctive Mood

  • Conditional tenses are used to express what we woulddo or what wouldhappen.

  • Conditional tenses have two parts: a subordinating “if” clause (the condition) and an independent “then” clause (the result). Verb forms vary according to the kind of statement being made.

  • If your statement states a conditional fact, use the simple present in the “if” clause and the simple present in the “then” clause.

  • If your statement makes a prediction, use the simple present in the “if” clause and will, can, may, should,or mightwith the base form of the main verb in the “then” clause.

  • If your sentence speculates about something unlikely to happen, use the past tense in the “if” clause and could, might,or wouldwith the base form of the verb in the “then” clause.

  • If your sentence speculates about something that didn’t happen in the past, use the past perfect in the “if” clause and could have, might have,or would havewith the past participle form of the main verb in the “then” clause.

  • if your sentence speculates about something that’s contrary to fact, use were(the subjunctive) in the “if” clause and could, might,or wouldwith the base form of the verb in the “then” clause.

  • The subjunctive mood uses the base form for all verbs in the present tense, except to be, which uses were for the subjunctive.

  • Use the subjunctive mood to describe something wished for, requested, or contrary to fact.

The conditional mood involves statements in which the results or outcome are contingent (depend) on a given situation or condition, including, like the subjunctive, hypothetical situations. The certainty of the outcome can vary from absolutely certain (not always considered the "true" conditional) through generally, potentially, and rarely certain to contrary to fact (the unreal conditional). For example:

The subjunctive mood treats statements of emotion, wishing, uncertainty, and contrary to fact/hypothetical situations:

There is a link between the conditional and subjunctive: in an unreal present conditional statement (one hypothetical or contrary to fact), the main clause (the result) is in the conditional while the subordinate clause (the condition) is in the subjunctive: