Sorry about that. I hope I didn't throw anybody off too much.
The correct answer is passive.
The passive is formed when the past participle (the form of the verb that usually goes with
have, as in "have kicked," "have eaten," and so on) is joined with a form of
be (like "was kicked," "is being eaten," and so on). This has the effect of flipping the subject and object around.
I kicked the ball.
The ball was kicked by me.
Students are often told to avoid the passive like the plague because it can lead to weak, awkward writing. However, there are legitimate uses for the passive—I used it in the last sentence ("students are told") because the students are the important part, not the person doing the telling (compare it to "Teachers often tell students . . .").
The reason for all this is that there's a very gross error concerning the passive voice in
The Chicago Manual of Style. Section 5.113 states, "If an inflected form of
to be is joined with the verb's present participle, a progressive conjugation is produced {the ox is pulling the cart}. The progressive conjugation is in active voice because the subject is performing the action, not
being acted on" (emphasis added).
It's inaccurate to say that progressive constructions are always active, especially since the author uses a passive progressive construction at the end of the paragraph. So I e-mailed
Chicago about it, and this is the response I got:
Yes, I think perhaps you are misunderstanding the point here. Section 5.113 seeks to prevent an inaccurate extension of 5.112, which states that "the passive voice is always formed by joining an inflected form of to be (or, in colloquial usage, to get) with the verb's past participle." In 5.113, CMS points out that phrases like "the subject is not being acted on," which might look passive, are actually constructed with a present participle, rather than a past participle, and are active in voice. (Note that the subject--the word "subject"--is performing the action of not being; this is active, not passive.)
Thank you for writing--
Staff
The section in the manual is confusing and somewhat inaccurate, but the staff's defense of it is just flat-out wrong. They say that it's constructed with a present participle, not a past participle, but
it has both. Then they say that it's the subject of not being, but they leave out the past participle again—it's really the object of not being acted on.
So if you got the answer right, congratulations: you officially know more about the passive voice than the staff members at
The Chicago Manual of Style.
Poll
