The Devil Made Me Do It: Causative Verbs (Part III - Passive Voice)

I feel sorry for the passive voice.  The feeling of many English teachers toward the passive voice is almost racist.  (Grammarist?)  Unfortunately, parents don’t always understand their own prejudices.  There are parents who won’t allow their children to marry the person they love just because they are of a different racial or religious background.  A parent might not allow their child to go to a sleepover at their best friend’s house because that friend has two daddies.  Fortunately, the children usually see the error of these decisions and grow up to see people just as people and understand how wrong their parents were.

Well, this is the case with the passive voice.  For years, English teachers have been telling their students “Don’t use the passive voice.  It’s not good.”  Well, I’m here to say it loud and say it proud.  I LOVE THE PASSIVE VOICE!  I don’t care who knows it.  (You can read my love letter to the passive voice in another blog entry.)  I bring this up because the passive voice is commonly used with causative verbs.

The Causative Passive

In Part I of the Causative Verbs series, I cautioned against overusing causative verbs.  They should only be used when the decision maker, the person giving the order or giving permission, is important.

Just as children get more responsibilities and privileges as they grow older, language students can use more “grown-up” patterns in their speech as their English gets more sophisticated.  (No parent would allow a three-year-old to run with scissors or wield a sharp knife.  Similarly, as a language teacher, I don’t allow students to use certain grammar before they are ready.  To my low intermediate students: “Don’t use the past perfect (had done).  You’re just going to hurt yourselves.")

So, how do you make the passive voice with causative verbs?  Since there are two verbs in all causative statements, there are two ways to make the passive voice.  (To see diagrams that illustrate these patterns, click here.)  Look at the following causative sentence.

• The school allows students to wear shorts and slippers* at school.

Because the word students automatically refers to school and we don’t know exactly who made this rule (and because the word school is being used twice in this sentence) the subject school is unnecessary.  To get rid of it, follow the basic rules of passive transformation.  Move the object students** to the subject position and change the verb by adding the correct form of the “be” verb and changing the main verb to the past participle, which leaves you with:

• Students are allowed to wear shorts and slippers at school.

Notice that nothing has changed in the infinitive phrase.  In the immortal words of MC Hammer, “You can’t touch this.”  Now, look at a more specific situation.

• Mid-Pacific Institute allows students to wear shorts and slippers at school.

Now you have a specific subject, the name of a specific school.  Therefore, if you change this to the passive voice, you must keep Mid-Pacific Institute.  With causative verbs, you can’t just add a prepositional phrase with by at the end.  It really seems weird.  (Students are allowed by the school.)  My reaction to this statement: "Eeeeewwwww."  This brings us to the second passive pattern for causative verbs.

Although students SEEMS to be the object of the causative verb, the object is really the entire infinitive phrase.  (For the real grammar geeks out there, go on to Part V for an explanation.)  Therefore, students is the subject of the infinitive phrase and to wear is like the main verb.  Look at the following examples.

• MPI allows students to wear shorts and slippers at school.
• MPI allows shorts and slippers to be worn at school.

This time, nothing about the subject and verb of the main clause changes.  All the changes happen in the infinitive phrase.  The object shorts and slippers becomes the new subject and the infinitive changes to its passive form by adding “be” and changing wear to worn.  Notice that students has been eliminated.  (If you want to keep students in the sentence, don’t use this pattern.)

There are two causative verbs, however, that can’t (or at least shouldn’t) be used in the passive voice: make and let.

• XXX I was made to stay after school. XXX
• XXX I was let to go to the movies with my friends. XXX

Again, my reaction to both of these sentences is “Eeeeeeeeewwwwww.”  The first sentence, with make, is not horribly terrible and is grammatically correct.  It is, however, very formal and probably not a good choice for everyday English.  The second one, with let, on the other hand, is just plain awful.  Don’t even think about it.

Alas, nothing can ever be this simple in English.  There is, of course, an exception to these rules, a third passive voice pattern for the causative verbs have and get.

The first pattern, changing the subject and verb of the main clause, doesn’t work.  For example:

• I had my son mow the grass.
• XXX My son was had to mow the grass. XXX

Not now, not ever is this passive construction acceptable.  Don’t even go there.  Forget you ever saw this monstrosity of a sentence.  So, how do you make the passive structure?

Like Pattern 2, the passive change happens in the bare infinitive phrase, the object of have.  Look at these examples.

• We had a professional photographer take our family portrait.
• We had our family portrait taken (by a professional photographer).

The only real difference between other causative verbs and have and get is that the “be” verb is not used (to be taken) as it would be with the others.

• Masa wouldn’t allow people to take his picture.
• We had a photographer take lots of pictures at our wedding.

• Masa wouldn’t allow his picture to be taken.
• We had lots of pictures taken at our wedding.

This can be confusing at first, but with time and practice, it’s not so bad.  To help you practice, I have made a series of exercises and posted them on my web site Mr. K’s Grammar World.

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*Slippers, also known as slippahs, is the local way in Hawaii to describe that wonderful footwear that people on the Mainland refer to as flip-flops.

**In reality, the entire infinitive phrase students to wear... is the object and students is really the subject of the infinitive phrase.

(I really appreciate questions, comments and suggestions.  Feel free to post them in the Comments section below.  However, I don't often see them right away.  Instead, you can use the Questions and Comments link  below or join my Facebook group Mr. K's Grammar World.)

Useful Links

• Questions or Comments
• Causative Verbs Practice
• Mr. K's Grammar World (Website)
• Mr. K's Grammar World (Facebook)
• The Devil Made Me Do It: Causative Verbs (Part I)
• The Devil Made Me Do It: Causative Verbs (Part II - Other Causative Verbs)
• The Devil Made Me Do It: Causative Verbs (Part III - The Passive Voice)
• The Devil Made Me Do It: Causative Verbs (Part IV - Adjectives and Verbs)
• The Devil Made Me Do It: Causative Verbs (Part V - For the True Grammar Geek)