Passive Type 2

You are certainly all familiar with the passive voice that is formed by using the passive prefix di-, e.g. Hari ini saya ditawari posisi yang lebih tinggi. We call this Passive Type 1. In our text we have two occurences of the passive voice, but without the prefix -di. This passsive construction is called Passive Type 2.

1. Tapi kenapa kok saya merasa tidak sreg dengan kesempatan yang saya miliki?
2. Apa yang harus saya lakukan?

Before we address Passive Type 2, we will first show you why the passive voice in these two sentences is compulsory. The rule is quite simple. You will see that both sentences have a similar construction where a relative clause is used. The relative clause consists of:

1. the relative pronoun yang
2. an optional auxilary verb (in the second sentence, harus; in the first sentence, sudah could be added: ...yang sudah saya miliki)
3. the personal pronoun saya, and
4. a passive verb, miliki, and lakukan.

A relative clause adds information to a noun or pronoun, which is called the head noun. The head nouns in our sentences are kesempatan and the interrogative pronoun apa.

The personal pronoun, saya, functions here as the agent ("the doer"). The rule that applies here is quite simple:

When there is an agent in a yang clause passive voice must be used.

This is a universal rule. Here are some examples where the yang clause is printed in green:

• Rumah yang saya tempati bagus sekali. The house that I occupy is very good.
• Semua uang yang dulu dimilikinya sekarang sudah habis. All the money that he used to have is gone.
• Orang yang tadi ditangkap polisi itu tetangga saya. The person that was just arrested by the police is my neighbour. (Please note: the itu in this sentence is attached to orang.)

As you can see, only the first sentence uses Passive Type 2 whereas the other two sentences are constructed using Passive Type 1. Why is this so? The answer is quite simple. The agent in the first sentence is a first person pronoun (saya). The agent of the second sentence is a third person pronoun (-nya); and the agent of the third sentence is a noun. The rules that apply here are:

1. When the agent is a first or second person pronoun Passive Type 2 must be used.
2. When the agent is a third person pronoun Passive Type 1 is commonly used, but Passive Type 2 is also permitted: Semua uang yang dulu dia miliki sekarang sudah habis.
3. When the agent is a noun Passive Type 1 must be used.

The following table lists some of the most frequent pronouns in active as well as in passive voice:

This is a very simplified list. As you know we have a large number of personal pronouns that are not listed in the above table: aku, Anda, Saudara, Bapak, etc., some of which (Om, Tante, etc.) can function as both second and third person pronouns.