Having difficulty with active passive voice

[Diane]

Hi,

My son and I are having difficulty understanding passive and active voice. We understand that in passive voice, you take the direct object and make that the subject. So, for example, "John hit the ball," would become "the ball was hit by John."

However, when the sentence becomes complicated, we get lost! In Diogenes Chreia, you have the sentence, "You should not unqualifiedly give over your minds to these men, as a ship is surrendered to the rudder." This is passive voice. We analyzed it in Word as well, and it too said it was passive, but we don't understand why. If we take just the first clause, "You should not unqualifiedly give over your minds to these men," that appears to us as active. What is it about the second clause, that makes the whole sentence passive? We are simply confused. The simpler sentences seem fairly easy to understand the concept, but this one has us scratching our heads...

[Diane]

Okay, I think we figured it out. It is the part where it says, "a shis is surrendered to the rudder." The ship is what is being surrendered. That is why it is passive, since it is the subject of the clause. Is that correct?

[Carolyn]

I think you've got it .. but I'm not entirely sure I understand your question aright.

"You should not give over your minds..." is active.
"A ship is surrendered to its rudder" is passive.

Does that make everything clear?

Carolyn

[Diane]

Yes, that was what it took a while to get. We needed to understand that we had to analyze every clause by itself.