How to identify that following sentence is in passive voice:

Question

There was animosity towards the US, which contributed to the attack of September 11, along with no solid airport security

jonnyh · Answer

"There was animosity towards the US, which contributed to the attack of September 11, along with no solid airport security"

In this sentence, "animosity" should be the subject, but it is the object of the verb "was" in this version of the sentence.

The sentence should read something like "Along with poor airport security, animosity towards the US contributed to the attack of September 11" - this would solve the problem of the passive voice and the misplaced modifier (along with no solid airport security).

For me, the easiest way to pick out sentences in the passive voice is to be hyper aware of any variation of "There was" (there is, there are, there were, etc). The other word you should look out for is "by", which very often shows up in sentences using the passive voice.

Examples:

There was a dog that barked vs A dog barked

They were fired by him vs. He fired them

vikram4689 · Answer

Thanks jonnyh, I understood this one, but i get lost when i try to arrive at general rule for passive identification. Please read below patiently

to understand confused state of my mind when it comes to passive identification 1. "There was/is/were" as you mentioned would make the subject of sentence to function as object and hence the sentence would become passive. Correct ? 2. You mentioned "By" makes sentence passive.. can you give an example.. 3. Also i high school i learned a general rule, A did B = active B was done by A = passive Following above rule 3, below sentence is passive September 11 attacks on US were contributed by animosity.... AND poor security.... So is it that a sentence can have 2 passive construction because we have seen that original sentence (i posted) is also passive. ?

jonnyh · Answer

Hey,

Yep, you are right on point number 3. Stylistically speaking, we sometimes use the passive voice on purpose if you want to deny responsibility for something. For example, we might say "mistakes were made" rather than "he made a mistake" because it is less direct and accusatory. For the GMAT, though, I would steer away from it.

In terms of passive voice sentences with "by", you can see it with the Active-Passive versions of sentences below.

I like her - She is liked by me

The chicken crossed the road - The road was crossed by the chicken

I live in China - China is lived in by me

Thanks jonnyh,

I understood this one, but i get lost when i try to arrive at general rule for passive identification. Please read below patiently to understand confused state of my mind when it comes to passive identification

1. "There was/is/were" as you mentioned would make the subject of sentence to function as object and hence the sentence would become passive. Correct ?

2. You mentioned "By" makes sentence passive.. can you give an example..

3. Also i high school i learned a general rule, 
A did B = active
B was done by A = passive

vikram4689 · Answer

Following sounds a bit weird, doesn't it
CHINA IS LIVED IN BY ME.

Lastly, 2 ways to make a sentence passive are by using 
1. "There was/is/were"
2. "by"

Are these exhaustive or there are more ways ??

How to identify that following sentence is in passive voice:

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