英语论文网

非英文母语者常见写作错误：被动语态(Passive Voice)

英文有主动与被动两种语态。对于那些不熟悉两者差异的读者，我们何不来个简单回顾呢？
In English we have both the passive and active voice. For those who are unfamiliar with the difference, why don't we do a quick review?

When using the active voice, we have the standard subject—verb—object construction.
当我们使用主动式时，必须要有「主词—动词—受词」这样的标准结构。

He eats the pie. 他吃派。
S V O 主词动词受词

I will see him on Friday. 星期五我将会看到他。
S V O 主词动词受词

Passive voice is reversed; the object/person receiving the action becomes subject of the sentence, while the actor is moved to end of the sentence (or is sometimes entirely absent).
被动语态呈现相反的句构。受词（或是人）接受到动作而成为句子的主词，但是行为者却被移至句尾（或有时候完全省略）。

He eats the pie. —active
他吃派。—主动式
The pie was eaten by him. —passive
派被他吃了。—被动式

I will see him on Friday. —active
星期五我将会看到他。—主动式
He will be seen by me on Friday. —passive
星期五他将会被我看到。—被动式

Today’s topic is a bit tricky as use of the passive voice is not wrong and sometimes even preferred over the active voice. However, unless you are writing for an academic journal where the use of the passive voice is usually required, taking steps to counter the overuse of passive voice will go a long way in helping with the overall readability of your sentences and ideas. Let’s now take a look at some English sentences written by Chinese speakers that illustrate this idea.
这一次的主题有点复杂，因为使用被动语态并没有错，有时甚至优于主动语态。然而，除非您正在写一篇学术期刊，期刊通常需要使用到被动语态，否则，减少大量使用被动语态，才能帮助读者在阅读的过程中更快了解句意。现在就让我们来看看一些由华人写出来的英文句子，恰好说明了这种情形。

1)Hundreds of volunteers were mobilized this morning to assist with the loading, as all hope these supplies may reach the hands of the survivors as soon as possible.
今天早上数百名志工被动员起来去协助装载补给品，因为所有希望这些物资能尽快送到幸存者的手中。

Interestingly enough, this first example shows how the passive voice can be used both correctly and incorrectly. If our sentence was “Hundreds of volunteers were mobilized this morning to assist with the loading” then this would be a perfectly good use of the passive voice. Why? Because in this example, the actor, (i.e. the group or person that mobilized the volunteers) is not as important to the overall meaning of the sentence as the recipient of the action (i.e. the hundreds of volunteers who were mobilized) and thus it can be safely left out by using the passive voice.
有趣的是，第一个例句可以同时示范被动语态如何使用的正确与不正确。如果句子是「今天早上数百名志工被动员起来去协助装载补给品」，那么这是使用被动语态的好示范。为什么呢？因为在本例句中的「行为者」（也就是动员志工的某人或某团体）在整句话的涵义里并没有接受动作者（也就是被动员起来的数百名志工）来得重要，因此使用被动语态时将行为者省略是比较好的。

The problem is that the author continues with “as all hope these supplies may reach the hands of the survivors as soon as possible.” “All” is an indefinite pronoun that stands in for the subject of the sentence; however, since the author has used the passive voice, the subject of the sentence is unknown. As a consequence, we are left in the dark regarding the identity of the person/entity the pronoun “all” is being used in place of. To address this problem, returning the sentence back to the active voice seems to be our best bet. Here are some pos