Unlocking the Power of Passive Voice in English Grammar

Diskusi 12 Grammar Analysis

Listen to someone trying to explain a high-profile error, and you'll probably hear him or her saying something like "The students were made in carrying out the assignment" or "She was given to the book.”

These statements are the potential to leave you scratching your head and wondering "Who is responsible for this mess?

Jawaban:

Passive Voice is a form of a sentence where the subject of the sentence accepts the action, not performs the action (Praba, 2017). Praba (2017) also stated that verbal sentences in passive voice are divided into two types based on the types of verbs used namely intransitive and transitive sentences.

Intransitive sentences are sentences that use intransitive verbs, and action verbs that do not take objects. Meanwhile, transitive sentences are sentences that use transitive verbs, and action verbs that take objects. For transitive sentences, there are objects to receive the actions (Praba, 2017).

If we look at the following statement:

The students were made in carrying out the assignment
She was given to the book.

In this case, the first and the second sentence are errors in grammatical. Based on my opinion, translation is one of the causes of error in constructing passive voice. The error is caused by a lack of knowledge of the target language or a misunderstanding of the target language.

Maybe it will be different if we use the sentences below:

The assignment was carried out by the students
The book was given by her

Praba (2017) mentioned that the understanding of passive voice will also be very important to apply in practicing the productive skill and receptive skills. So, we should know the basic rule in constructing passive voice.

Reference:

Praba, Utari et al. 2017. Buku Materi Pokok MPBI 5202/3SKS/Modul 1-9: Grammar Analysis. Tangerang Selatan, Banten: Universitas Terbuka.