Passive Verb? I Think Not

A while past, I asked a fellow author to swap ads in our newsletters for one of each other’s books. She suggested we read each other’s books to see if we were ‘compatible’ with each other’s audience.

So I read her book of short stories and although I didn’t find a lot of grammar or punctuation mistakes, I wasn’t impressed. Most of them seemed to be ‘slices of life’, not actual stories. She was writing a single scene that had no problem to solve, and therefore, had no resolution. I was carefully crafting a soft critique when she emailed me with the news that she didn’t feel my book was fitting for her audience.

Her reason? It had too many ‘passive verbs’ like ‘seemed’.

Years ago, I was told to avoid ‘seemed’ in one of my short stories because it was a passive verb. At that time, I decided to research exactly what was a passive verb so that I could avoid them. (Authors are always being told to ‘avoid passive verbs!’ without any explanation of what a passive verb is.)

A passive verb is when something is acted upon by someone or something.

Found artifacts are studied by archeologists. – Passive

Archeologists study artifacts that have been found. – Not Passive

 

Beach rocks are pounded into sand by recurring waves. - Passive

Recurring waves pound beach rocks into sand. – Not Passive

 

Those holsters were crafted by a novice leathersmith. – Passive

A novice leathersmith crafted those holsters. – Not Passive

 

Mary was kissed by Steve. – Passive

Steve kissed Mary. - Not Passive

 

Another way to think of it is that with an active verb, the subject does something. With a passive verb, the subject is acted upon. When searching for passive verbs, look for a ‘be’ verb (be, am, are, is, been, being, was, were) as part of the verb. In the above examples, we have are studied, are pounded, were crafted, and was kissed. A ‘be’ verb often (but not always) signals a passive verb. Does it have a ‘by’ phrase behind the verb?

Some writers attempt to ‘correct’ passive verbs by eliminating the ‘by’ phrase. It doesn’t work. “Mary was kissed.” is still a passive verb even if you don’t know who kissed her.

‘Seemed’ is not, by itself, a passive verb. “Everything seemed normal” is not a passive verb. How about “Mother seemed distraught by the news”? It’s got a ‘by’ phrase. But it doesn’t have a be verb, so frankly, I’m in a quandary, and would probably rewrite the sentence, possibly the entire scene.

Let’s take a closer look. ‘Mother’ is the subject, ‘seemed’ is the verb, ‘distraught’ is an adjective describing the subject, and ‘by the news’ is a phrase answering the question of why. The news made mother distraught, so the subject has been acted upon, making this a passive verb. That’s how my thinking goes. Does your thinking agree with mine?

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this subject, as well as where you get your information on passive verbs.