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Vol. 72, No. 10, October 1999

Legal Writing

From the Mailbag

The difference between a "tense" and a "voice"

Q: In your article, "Finding the Perfect Tense," in the April issue, you provide an example in the center column on page 28. In the example, isn't "will be incapacitated" a future passive rather than future perfect tense?

A: Actually, "passive" and "active" are considered "voices" rather than tenses, so there is no passive tense. Tenses have to do with the timing of an action with respect to the time current to the text, while voices have to do with the perspective from which the verb is stated. Nevertheless, you are absolutely right that this was not a perfect tense. It should have read "will have been incapacitated" to be the future perfect tense, passive voice. "Will have incapacitated" would be the future perfect tense, active voice. I apologize to my readers, and thanks to the other sharp-eyed readers who also caught my error!