VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES BÙI THỊ THUẬN

COMMON ERRORS IN THE USE OF THE ENGLISH
PASSIVE MADE BY THE GRADE 10 NON-ENGLISH
MAJORS AT TRAN PHU SPECIALISED HIGH
SCHOOL, HAIPHONG

NHỮNG LỖI THƯỜNG GẶP Ở THỂ BỊ ĐỘNG CỦA HỌC
SINH KHÔNG CHUYÊN KHỐI 10 TRƯỜNG THPT
CHUYÊN
TRẦN PHÚ, HẢI PHÒNG

M.A MINOR THESIS
HANOI - 2012
Major: Linguistics
Code: 60.22.15

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

PART I - INTRODUCTION
I. Rationale of the study 6
II. Objectives of the study 7
III. Scope of the study 7
IV. Methods of the study 8
V. Organization of the study 8

PART II – DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER I – LITERATURE REVIEW 9
1. An overview of voice in English 9
1.1. Voice 9
1.2. Active and Passive Voice 10
1.3. English passive voice 12
1.4. English passive in comparison with Vietnamese passive 26
2. Error and error analysis. 28
2.1. Definition of error 28
2.2. Error analysis 29
2.3. Causes of errors 30
CHAPTER II – METHODOLOGY 33
1. Subject of the study 33
2. Setting 33
3. Research tools 34
4. Data collection procedures 36

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CHAPTER III – DATA PRESENTATION AND DISCUSSION 37
1.Written test 37
2.1. Written test results 37
2.2. Some common errors made by the students 37

Lists of tables and charts
Chart1: The change in the position of constituents in passive transformation
Table 1: Passive verbs in different tenses
Table 2: The statistic of correct answers
Table 3: Types of errors found in the study
Table 4: Unnatural translation due to unchanging the voice
Table 5: Errors of forming the past participle
Table 6: Wrong translation samples with “bị, được”
Table 7: Errors of using some special passive voice structures
Table 8: List of special structures
Table 9: Unnatural translation with some special structures 1

PART I – INTRODUCTION
I. Rationale of the study
According to statistics of recent studies, people who master English will
see greater possibilities of success in doing research, getting promotion, and
doing business. They also confirm the relationship between English
competence and high salary or increased trade. Accordingly, the importance

II. Objectives of the study:
The study is aimed at firstly achieving deeper understanding of English
passive voice, and above all, figuring out typical errors made by the students
at Tran Phu Specialized High School in using passive voice. Besides, the
thesis is to find out causes of the typical errors in using passive voice and
working out solutions to teaching students passive voice effectively.
Hence, the research is to answer the following questions:
+ What are the typical errors made by non – English majors at Tran Phu
Specialized High School?
+ What are probable causes for these errors?
+ What are possible solutions to help the students overcome these errors?

III. Scope of the study:
The study is focused on the passive voice. However, it is not my
ambition to cover every issue of the passive voice. Within this small thesis, I
desire to give readers some aspects of passive voice: a description of the
passive voice sentence, uses, passive transformation constraints, and the
formation of passive voice. A comparison between English passive sentences
and their Vietnamese equivalents is also mentioned.
Moreover, second language learners are various and different in the
way of making errors. However, because of limited size, the study will
concentrate on giving an analysis of errors made by only 70 students from
two non-major classes at Tran Phu Specialised High School.
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IV. Methods of the study:
This study is a quantitative survey research. In fact, a combination of
data instruments is employed in an attempt to attain all the objectives above.
All the theory is attested by the exact data collected from a written test and a
questionnaire for students which is presented in the later parts of the study.

as mood, tense, aspect, and voice. Among these aspects, it appears that voice
is one of the most dominant parts of English grammar. Accordingly,
numerous grammarians have studied voice and defined what voice is in their
own way. Followings are some typical definitions, which are usually used in
teaching and learning English.
“Voice is a grammatical category which makes it possible to view the
action of sentence in two ways without change in the facts reported.”
(Randolph Quirk, 1973:98)
“Voice is a form or set of forms of a verb in which either person or thing
that does something is the subject of the verb (the active voice) or the person
or thing that is affected by the action of the verb is the object (the passive
voice)”
(The Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary)
All things considered, the above definitions express the relationship
between the subject and the action of the verb. To illustrate this relationship,
consider the following example:
 Jim’s daughter drew that picture.
 That picture was drawn by Jim’s daughter.
In the first sentence, the subject “Jim’s daughter” is the person who
performs the action “draw”. Conversely, in the second sentence, “that picture”
does not perform the action. “That picture” is created by the action of
drawing.
1.2. Active and Passive Voice
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English has two voices, the active voice and the passive one, to indicate the
relationship between the subject and the action described by its verbs.
(Illinois, R. 397:1985)
1.2.1. Active Voice
The active voice shows that the person or thing denoted by the subject of
Chart1: The change in the position of constituents in passive transformation
The third difference is that unlike the active sentence, in passive
construction, it is easy to leave out the person or thing doing the action if the
speaker does not want to specify who the agent is.
In addition, the two above sentences also differ semantically and lexically.
In (c) the focus is on “John” while in (d), the emphasis is on “this clock”. The
focus has changed from “John” to “this o’clock”. That is to say the
information which is more important to be informed will be made the subject
of a sentence to draw attention.
Therefore, the active construction is often considered to be more direct,
powerful and vivid as the performer is known and placed at the initial. In
contrast, the passive voice is supposed to be indirect, unemphatic, and vague
because the performer is likely to be unnamed or named only in a minor
sentence element.
Moreover, active and passive sentence sometimes are not totally equal in
meaning. There are shifts in the range of meaning especially when the active
Active S
(John)

Passive S
(this clock)
Passive verb
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Tense
Aspect
Present
Past
Future
Modal (M)

Simple
Am
Is + P
ii
Are
Was
+ P
ii
Were
Will
+ be + P
ii
Shall

M+be+P
ii

(Thomson and Martinet, 1986:265)
Table 1: Passive verbs in different tenses
It should be noted here that the progressive forms of the present perfect, past
perfect, future and future perfect are very rarely used in the passive since we
usually avoid saying “be being” and “been being”.
E.g.: You will be doing geometry next term. (NOT: Geometry will be being
done next term.)
1.3.1.3. A preposition plus agent
The subject of an active sentence can be introduced in the corresponding
passive one by means of “by” phrase. It is notable that the subject of the active
sentence now either remains noun phrases or changes into objective pronouns.
E.g.: My daddy made this cake.
 This cake is made by my daddy.
E.g.: She saw John yesterday.
 John was seen by her yesterday.
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In a passive clause, we usually use a phrase beginning with “by” if we want to
mention the agent –the person or thing that does the action, or that causes
what happens.
E.g.: All the trouble was caused by your mother.
I was shocked by your attitude.
Also, the method can be mentioned using an –ing form after “by”.
E.g.: Much of their strong taste can be removed by changing the cooking
water.
Note, however, that usually the passive is used without a by-phrase. In fact,
only about 20% of passive sentences mention the agent. According to Michael
Vince (34:2003), there are several reasons for this.
 Agent not known:
E.g.: Mike’s motorbike was stolen last night.

of their distress call.
I remembered being taken to the fair by my father, who rarely showed any
interests in such things.
 When the agent is mentioned with proper names of famous or important
people.
E.g.: Life on the Mississippi was written by Mark Twain.
In fact, the by + agent phrase is commonly used to talk about works of arts,
well – known inventions, discoveries, historical events, and famous
achievements.
 When the identity of the agent is unexpected or surprising.
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E.g.: It’s unbelievable! This quiz was solved by a seven - year old boy.
In some cases, by is replaced by with, which is often used especially with such
past participles as: crammed, crowded, packed, and filled.
E.g.: The train was packed with commuters.
Actually, by and with are not generally interchangeable in the following
examples:
E.g.: Dave was hit by a branch. (an accident)
Dave was hit by with a branch. (a person hit him with one)
(Michael Vince, 34:2003)
Accordingly, the difference between with and by may involve the presence of
a person.
After the past participles of some stative verbs, including some which are used
like adjectives, other prepositions can be used instead of by.
E.g.: We were worried about/by her silence.
Are you frightened of spiders?
1.3.2. Constraints on the passive transformation
Although most active sentences can have corresponding passive sentence,
there still exist some exceptional active sentence that cannot have passive

I was born in Haiphong. (NOT: My mother bore me in Haiphong.)
Moreover, it is only in the abstract, figurative use such as “go into, arrive at,
look into” and many other expressions accept the passive.
E.g.:
The engineers went very carefully into the problem.  The problem was very
carefully gone into by the engineers.
The engineers went very carefully into the tunnel. (NOT: The tunnel was very
carefully gone into by the engineers.)
One more important point is that the passive is not possible for many idioms
in which the verb and the object form a close unit:
The ship set sail. (NOT: Sail was set.)
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We changed buses. (NOT: Buses were changed.)
* Object constraints:
- With clauses as objects, sentences take the passive with “it” – subject. That
is to say clauses are introduced by anticipatory “it” and remain in post –
verbal position in the passive sentence.
E.g.:
John thought that she was attractive.
~* That she was attractive was thought by John.
However, the passive often becomes acceptable in these cases:
It was thought that she was attractive.
OR: She was thought to be attractive.
- Co-reference between a subject and a noun phrase object blocks the passive
correspondence. This constraint occurs with reflexive, reciprocal, and
possessive pronouns when co-referential to the subject. The following
sentences cannot have passive transformation:
E.g.: John could see himself in the mirror.
E.g.: We could hardly see each other in the fog.

E.g.: People say that Henry is in love with Claire.
 It is said that Henry is in love with Claire.
OR: Henry is said to be in love with Claire.
* The object is a non – finite clause:
Non-finite clause objects without subject include verbs which take either
participle or infinitive. The passive analogue is rare with these verbs.
E.g.: I intend to go.
~* To go was intended (by me).
(Quirk & Greenbaum, 1973:365)
The exceptions are with a few verbs notably “agree, arrange, decide” only if
there is extraposition “it”.
E.g.: They decided to buy the car.
~ It was decided to buy the car by them.
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Additionally, to certain kinds of verbs such as: agree, insist, recommend,
recommend, advise, etc., the passive can be expressed by a finite clause:
“that…should”
E.g.: He decided to sell the house.
 He decided that the house should be sold.
(Thomson & Martinet, 1986:264)
1.3.3.1.2.Formation from the S-V-Oi-Od (-A) pattern:
Many verbs carry two objects in an active sentence. One object is usually a
concrete or abstract thing, the other is usually a person or sometimes both of
two objects are things. Normally, the direct object becomes the subject of the
corresponding sentence in most cases as we are more interested in people than
things. Also, the indirect object is always a noun phrase while the direct one
may be a noun phrase, a finite clause or a non – finite clause.
* The direct object is a noun phrase
When direct object and indirect object are noun phrases, the active sentence

( Quirk & Greenbaum, 1973:371)
* The direct object is a prepositional phrase
Ditransitive verbs whose direct object must be introduced by a preposition
normally allow one passive, with the indirect object as subject:
E.g.: We reminded him of the agreement.
~ He was reminded of the agreement.
(Quirk & Greenbaum, 1973:371)
* Idiomatic expressions consisting of Verb + noun phrase + preposition
There are two passive forms of the sentence, since either of two noun
phrases can become the subject of a passive sentence.
E.g.: They had made good use of the house.
~ Good use had been made of the house.
~ The house had been made good use of.
(Quirk & Greenbaum, 1973:372)
1.3.3.1.3. Formation from the S-V-O - C (-A) pattern:
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* The object complement is a noun phrase:
The active sentence can be passivized with the object becoming the subject
of the passive sentence.
E.g.: She made him a good husband.
~ He was made a good husband (by her).
* The object complement is an adjective phrase:
E.g.: I made her very angry.
~ She was made very angry.
* The object complement is an infinitive clause:
- The object complement is a to – infinitive clause:
E.g.: The professor assumed the student to know some French.
~The student was assumed to know some French.
(Quirk & Greenbaum, 1973:362)

~ Bob was watched teaching Mary.
- With some verbs which are followed by an object in the ing-participle
clause, the passive can also be in the ing participle clause:
E.g.: I watch Mary being taught by Bob.
This is often found in the passive transformation especially with verbs such
as “like, dislike, hate, remember, forget.”

E.g.: She dislikes him kissing her on her cheek.
~* He is disliked (by her) kissing her on her cheek.
~ She dislikes being kissed on her cheek.
E.g.: I found him using my car.
~ I found my car being used by him.
* The object complement is an –ed participle clause:
E.g.: The tourists found the chairs occupied.
~ The chairs were found occupied (by the tourists.)
(Quirk & Greenbaum, 1973:367)

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1.3.3.2. Other forms with passive meaning
* Stative passive
Passive verb forms consist of two kinds: dynamic passive and stative
passive.
E.g.:
Ann broke the window yesterday.
The window was broken by Ann.  Dynamic passive
Now the window is broken.  Stative passive
We use dynamic passive to express an action whereas stative passive may be
used to describe an existing situation or state. In the stative passive:
 No action is taking place. The action happened earlier.

* The causative
Have/get + object + past participle
This typical describes a service performed for us by someone else.
E.g.: I’ve just had/got my car serviced. I have/get it done every winter.
It can also describe something unfortunate that happens to someone.
E.g.: We had/got our car broken into last month.
Get is more likely to be used than have when:
 There is a feeling that something must be done.
E.g.: I really must get my hair cut.
 There is a feeling of eventually managing to do something.
E.g.: I eventually got the car fixed at the Fast Service Garage.
 In orders and imperatives.
E.g.: Get your hair cut.
Note that get should not be used in the present perfect passive, where it
would be confused with have got.
* The pseudo - passive
A few verbs are active in form but passive in meaning under certain
circumstances.