In Today’s Journal
* Chapter Two, Part 2
* Of Interest
Chapter Two, Part 2
State-of-Being Verbs
When addressing this particular topic, faux instructors will tell you point-blank to avoid the state-of-being verbs. In almost every case, they say you should avoid them “to avoid writing passive constructions.”
Some of those faux-instructors will even tell you outright that using a gerund or past-progressive tense verb creates passive voice or a passive construction.
It doesn’t.
They probably believe it does because the past-progressive form is composed of a gerund preceded by “were,” a state-of-being verb.
But as you’ll see in a moment, gerunds (“ing” nouns) and past-progressive verb forms have absolutely nothing to do with passive voice or passive construction.
And just so you know, state-of-being verbs don’t create passive voice or passive constructions either, at least not without a little help.
In case you’ve forgotten or missed class that day, the state-of-being verbs consist of am, is, are, was, were, be, being. and been. Their “helper verbs” (auxiliary verbs) are have, has, and had.
And none of those create passive voice or passive construction.
The fact is, state-of-being verbs, like every other part of speech, are often necessary. And if you’re trying to describe a state of being, they’re absolutely essential. You can’t describe the state of being of anything or anyone—past, present, or future—without using one of the state-of-being verbs with or without a helper verb.
To get this segment out of the way, go ahead and try to describe a state of being without using a state-of-being verb if you want to.
I’ll wait….
State-of-being verbs also sometimes act as “linking” verbs. In that role, they either link the subject to a predicate nominative (a noun) or to a predicate adjective. Here are two overly simple examples:
- Andre the Giant was a professional wrestler.
- Henry is very tall
In the first example, “was” functions as a linking verb, “linking” two nouns that mean the same thing: “Andre the Giant” and “wrestler.”
In the second example, “is” functions as a linking verb, linking the subject “Henry” to the descriptive adjective “tall.”
Neither of those or any other linking verbs create passive voice either.
So What Is Passive Voice or Passive Construction?
In brief, a passive construction is a way for the subject of the sentence to avoid or put off taking responsibility for the action conveyed by the verb of the sentence.
In fiction, it’s never a good idea for the narrator to use a passive construction, but if a character chooses to do so in dialogue, that’s his or her business.
Every passive construction consists of two main ingredients:
- It must include a state-of-being verb, and
- It must include or imply a prepositional phrase that begins with the preposition “by.” For that reason, I call it the “by phrase.”
- In every case of passive construction, the object of the sentence is in the subject position, ahead of the state-of-being verb.
- In every case of passive construction, the subject of the sentence is in the object position, after the state-of-being verb. Yes, even when the subject and the by phrase is only implied instead of actually being there.
My personal goal is to one day stop all this writing and teaching so I can finally realize my lifelong dream to become a pizza delivery guy, preferably for Pizza Hut. They’re my personal go-to.
With that in mind, here’s my favorite example of passive vs. active construction:
- The pizza was delivered.
- The pizza was delivered by Harvey.
- Harvey delivered the pizza.
Okay. In the first line of the example, the by phrase was only implied. If the pizza “was delivered,” the implication is that it had to be delivered “by” someone, right? That’s a passive construction.
Remember earlier I said passive construction is a way for the subject of the sentence to put off or avoid responsibility? In that line, the subject (who or what did something in the sentence) never reveals itself. It’s only implied.
In the second line, the by phrase is included. So that too is a passive construction. Still, the subject of the sentence accepts responsibility for the action conveyed by the verb only at the very end.
And in the third line—this time an active construction—you’ll notice that the state-of-being verb is gone, replaced with the action verb “delivered.”
Notice too that the by phrase is gone. It’s no longer necessary.
Again we’re back to the subject of the sentence accepting responsibility for the action conveyed by the verb:
In all three lines of the example, “pizza” is the object of the sentence, not the subject. But in the first two lines, the object is in the subject position in the sentence. That’s why those lines sound so awkward.
- In the first line of the example, the subject is only implied (in the implied by phrase).
- In the second line, the subject appears, but again in the object position in the actual by phrase. (It’s acting as the object of the preposition “by.”)
- In the third line, the subject (who did something in the sentence) finally appears in the “correct” position where it’s followed by the action verb (what the subject did) and then the object (what the action was done to or what received the action of the verb). So the subject finally takes responsibility “up front” for the action conveyed by the verb.
Now, my own disclaimer—I’ve been criticized more than once about these examples, with detractors saying the examples are overly simple.
They miss the point. No matter how complex a sentence is or how many words, phrases, and clauses it has, a passive construction will always have a state-of-being verb in the verb position and it will always have either an actual or implied by phrase. If I wrote a thousand examples, that structure wouldn’t change through any of them.
So again, when faux writing instructors say that “state-of-being verbs” or “helper verbs” or “‘ing’ words” or “gerunds” create passive voice or passive constructions, ignore them.
Every passive construction follows the pattern in the first two lines of the example above. Period. If you don’t allow your narrator to use them in your fiction, your writing will improve dramatically.
Back in a day or two with Chapter Three. Talk with you again then.
Of Interest
How much of our personalities are determined at birth? Maybe good to learn some of this for when your creative subconscious comes up with characters.