Comprised v. Is Comprised Of
I’ve always run into those blow-hard editors, copyeditors and proofreaders who insisted that comprise be used in the active sense, meaning "to include."
Hence, one could write, "The program comprises dieting, exercise, and yoga." One could not write this in the passive voice, "The program is comprised of dieting, exercise, and yoga," which is the way I always used the verb.
Now,"blow-hard central" had a point in the sense that I never recognized comprise as a transitive verb that took objects, but I’m not sure they were right about not using "is comprised of."
Now to the rescue comes Common Errors in English, which has a solution–use "is composed of" instead, but that doesn’t quite, to me at least, convey the same meaning as "is comprised of."
Whatever, the blow-hards are always right. Blow-hards rule just about everywhere, don’t they? But they’re not always right!
Tags: editors, copyeditors and proofreaders
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Filed under: Grammar Sucks
Why do you insist on treating the word “comprise” any differently than any other verb in passive or active voice? You cannot use the same subject interchangeably for active and passive voice. The subject of a passive voice sentence is an object in an active voice sentence with the same meaning. If you would take the time to look at active and passive voice more closely, as well as the definition of “comprise,” you would see this. the word means “to encompass.” Therefore, the sentences “The world encompasses many nations” and “The world is encompassed by many nations” do not mean the same thing. The second sentence makes no sense, even though you want very much for it to make sense. But this is no different than any other verb. The object of an active voice becomes the subject in passive voice. Plain and simple. The whole comprises the parts. The parts are comprised by the whole. Active voice. Passive voice. Very simple.
Penelope, good point. The world is actually encompassed by much outer space.
From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English:
The city’s population is largely comprised of Asians and Europeans.
How about that?
Looks good to me, Jack. That’s the way I always used to construct things.
Yes, that’s correct but Penelope wrote that “be comprise of” isn’t the same as “comprise”. But it is.
You can say both:
The city’s population is comprised of Asians and Europeans.
and
The city’s population comprises Asians and Europeans.
Both sentences have the same meaning.
However, “is comprised of” is the passive voice, which is probably why many say not to use it.
Dictionaries will usually tell you that both of these forms are currently in usage. But Penelope makes a very good point in that, if both of these usages are allowed, then “comprise” is a very special word. You can’t treat the passive voice of comprise in the same way you can treat the passive voice of, say, “compose.”
I can say:
A water molecule is composed of hydrogen and oxygen atoms.
or
Hydrogen and oxygen atoms compose a water molecule.
Subject and object switch places, as is proper. But with “comprise” in its oldest usage:
A water molecule comprises hydrogen and oxygen atoms.
or
Hydrogen and oxygen atoms are comprised by a water molecule.
By allowing the alternate usage, changing the preposition reverses the relationship:
A water molecule is comprised of hydrogen and oxygen atoms.
It would appear that this last usage was just an error in usage, confusing “compose” and “comprise.” Because the usage of “comprise” is itself confused and limited by allowing the “is comprised of” usage, I advocate avoiding the latter. The latter usage cannot be put into active voice without changing the actual meaning of the word or using a different word entirely. That makes it a degenerate colloquialism that detracts from the word rather than employing it fully.