General English: Active and Passive Voice, and Direct and Indirect Speech

Two tenses have no ordinary passive form: the present perfect continuous and the past perfect continuous. A sentence such as "The Judge has been writing the judgment" is not turned into a passive in ordinary English, and the correct answer to a question asking for one is to say so.

Sentences with two objects

Some verbs take two objects, a direct one and an indirect one: give, offer, grant, award, pay, teach, send.

Active: The Court awarded the plaintiff costs.

Either object can become the subject, so there are two correct passives: The plaintiff was awarded costs by the Court. Costs were awarded to the plaintiff by the Court.

Notice that when the direct object becomes the subject, the indirect object usually takes "to".

Questions, negatives and commands

A question keeps its question form. Active: Did the Magistrate frame the charge? Passive: Was the charge framed by the Magistrate?

Active: Who wrote this affidavit? Passive: By whom was this affidavit written?

A negative stays negative. Active: The prosecution did not prove the case. Passive: The case was not proved by the prosecution.

An imperative uses "let" or "should". Active: File the written statement. Passive: Let the written statement be filed.

Active: Do not disturb the possession. Passive: Let not the possession be disturbed.

When to use each

Use the active when you want to say who did it, and when the sentence would otherwise be limp. "The Court held" is better than "It was held by the Court" wherever the identity of the court matters.

Use the passive when the doer is unknown, unimportant, or deliberately not named, and when the thing done matters more than the doer. Statutes use it because a rule addressed to everybody has no particular doer: "the plaint shall be rejected" does not need to say by whom.

That last point is worth a sentence in an examination answer, because it shows you understand why the law is written the way it is rather than merely how to swap the words round.

Five errors to avoid

Forgetting the participle. "The appeal was dismiss" is wrong; it is "was dismissed".

Changing the tense. "The Court dismissed the appeal" becomes "was dismissed", never "is dismissed".

Making an intransitive verb passive. A verb with no object cannot be turned round: "The witness arrived" has no passive.

Dropping "by" where it is needed. Omit the agent only where it genuinely does not matter.

Turning "have to" and "used to" mechanically. These need care: "The Registrar has to sign the decree" becomes "The decree has to be signed by the Registrar".

Direct and indirect speech

The two forms

Direct speech reproduces the exact words, inside inverted commas, after a comma: The Judge said, "I will deliver the judgment tomorrow."

Indirect speech reports them in the reporter's own words, without inverted commas, usually with "that": The Judge said that he would deliver the judgment the next day.

The changes, in order

Work through them in this order every time and you will not go wrong.

One, the reporting verb. Choose the right one: said, told, asked, ordered, requested, advised, warned. Note the difference between "said" and "told": you say something, and you tell somebody. "He said that" and "He told me that", never "He said me that".

Two, remove the inverted commas and the comma, and add "that" for a statement.

Three, change the pronouns to suit the reporter. First person follows the speaker, second person follows the person addressed, third person does not change.

Four, change the tense, if the reporting verb is in the past.

Five, change the words of nearness to words of distance.

The tense table for reported speech

If the reporting verb is in the past tense, the tense of the reported words goes one step back.

Three exceptions to the backshift, and naming them earns marks.

If the reporting verb is in the present or future tense, the tense of the reported words does not change: He says, "The suit is barred." becomes He says that the suit is barred.

If the reported words state a universal truth or a permanent fact, the tense does not change: The teacher said, "Article 141 binds all courts." becomes The teacher said that article 141 binds all courts.

If the reported words describe a past event fixed to a stated time, the past tense is often kept: He said, "The Constitution came into force in 1950." becomes He said that the Constitution came into force in 1950.

The words of nearness

Questions, commands and exclamations

Each has its own pattern, and this is where most marks are lost.

A question. Drop "that". Turn the question back into statement order. Use "asked" or "enquired". If it can be answered yes or no, join with if or whether; if it begins with a question word, keep that word as the joining word.

The Magistrate asked, "Do you plead guilty?" becomes The Magistrate asked whether he pleaded guilty.

Counsel asked, "When was the notice served?" becomes Counsel asked when the notice had been served.

Note that the question mark disappears and the inverted word order goes with it. "He asked when was the notice served" is wrong.

A command or request. Use "ordered", "commanded", "requested", "advised", "warned", and join with to, or not to for a negative.

The Court said to the parties, "File your affidavits." becomes The Court ordered the parties to file their affidavits.

The Judge said, "Do not interrupt the witness." becomes The Judge told him not to interrupt the witness.

An exclamation. Use "exclaimed with joy", "exclaimed with sorrow", "exclaimed with surprise", and turn the exclamation into a statement.

The accused said, "Alas! I have lost everything." becomes The accused exclaimed with sorrow that he had lost everything.

A sentence with "let". Where "let" expresses a proposal, use "suggested" or "proposed" with "should".

He said, "Let us settle the matter." becomes He suggested that they should settle the matter.

A worked example

Take one sentence from a judgment and run both transformations on it.

Original, active and direct: The Magistrate said to the accused, "The prosecution has proved the charge against you today."

Into indirect speech. The reporting verb is "said to", which becomes "told". Remove the inverted commas and add "that". "you" becomes "him". The reporting verb is past, so the present perfect "has proved" backshifts to the past perfect "had proved". "today" becomes "that day".

Result: The Magistrate told the accused that the prosecution had proved the charge against him that day.

Into the passive, in its direct form. The object of the reported clause is "the charge". "has proved" is present perfect, so the passive is "has been proved". The agent is "the prosecution".

Result: The Magistrate said to the accused, "The charge against you has been proved by the prosecution today."

Both together. Apply the passive inside the reported clause and then backshift.

Result: The Magistrate told the accused that the charge against him had been proved by the prosecution that day.

Notice what happened at each step and nothing else changed. That is the discipline the question is testing.

What these do NOT mean

The passive is not a mistake. Advice to "write in the active voice" is advice about style in ordinary prose. Statutes are drafted in the passive on purpose, and an answer that calls the passive an error is wrong.

Reported speech is not a paraphrase. The changes are mechanical, and the substance must survive intact. A reporter who changes the meaning has not converted the sentence, he has altered the evidence.

The tense does not always backshift. Three exceptions: a present or future reporting verb, a universal truth, and a past event tied to a stated time.

"Said" and "told" are not interchangeable. You say something; you tell somebody.

A reported question is not a question. It takes statement word order and no question mark.

Quick revision

Passive: object becomes subject, verb becomes the right tense of "be" plus past participle, old subject goes after "by". No passive for the present perfect continuous or the past perfect continuous, and none for an intransitive verb. Two objects give two passives. Imperative uses "let". Question keeps question form.

Indirect speech: choose the reporting verb; drop the inverted commas; add "that" for a statement, "if" or "whether" or the question word for a question, "to" or "not to" for a command; change pronouns; backshift the tense if the reporting verb is past; change now to then, today to that day, tomorrow to the next day, here to there, this to that, ago to before.

Three no-backshift cases: present or future reporting verb, universal truth, past event fixed to a stated time.

Test yourself

1. Change into the passive voice: "The Court has rejected the plaint."

The plaint has been rejected by the Court. The tense is present perfect, so the passive is formed with "has been" and the past participle "rejected"; the object of the active sentence becomes the subject and the agent follows "by".

2. Change into the passive voice: "Did the Magistrate examine the complainant on oath?"

Was the complainant examined on oath by the Magistrate? The sentence is a question in the simple past, so the passive keeps the question form and uses "was" with the past participle "examined"; the object becomes the subject and the agent follows "by".

3. Change into the active voice: "The written statement must be filed within thirty days."

The defendant must file the written statement within thirty days. The passive gives no agent, so an appropriate subject has to be supplied when converting; the modal "must" is retained and the participle "be filed" becomes the plain form "file".

4. Change into indirect speech: "The witness said, 'I saw the accused near the shop yesterday.'"

The witness said that he had seen the accused near the shop the previous day. The reporting verb is past, so the simple past "saw" backshifts to the past perfect "had seen"; the first person pronoun becomes third person; and "yesterday" becomes "the previous day".

5. Change into indirect speech: "The Judge said to the clerk, 'Bring the file at once.'"

The Judge ordered the clerk to bring the file at once. A command is reported with a reporting verb such as ordered, told or directed, joined by "to" with the plain form of the verb; the inverted commas and the imperative form disappear, and no "that" is used.

6. Change into indirect speech: "Counsel asked, 'Is the suit barred by limitation?'"

Counsel asked whether the suit was barred by limitation. A question capable of a yes or no answer is joined by "if" or "whether"; the interrogative word order becomes statement order; the question mark disappears; and the present tense backshifts to the past because the reporting verb is in the past.