Search results
A passive voice construction is a grammatical voice construction that is found in many languages. In a clause with passive voice, the grammatical subject expresses the theme or patient of the main verb – that is, the person or thing that undergoes the action or has its state changed.
Apr 25, 2023 · What is the passive voice? In general, the active voice makes your writing stronger, more direct, and, you guessed it, more active. The subject is something, or it does the action of the verb in the sentence. With the passive voice, the subject is acted upon by some other performer of the verb.
The first one is already in the passive voice (subject + be + past participle). The second one does not have "be" in it, so it's just a noun phrase (noun + past participle). It can be changed into the passive voice: The mission is accomplished. The active voice would be something like: I grant you permission and I accomplished the mission.
Define passive voice: The definition of passive voice is when the recipient of the verb’s action becomes the subject of a sentence. The passive voice is not common in writing. However, it is a stylistic choice that writers will occasionally use for effect.
The English passive voice typically involves forms of the verbs to be or to get followed by a passive participle as the subject complement—sometimes referred to as a passive verb. English allows a number of additional passive constructions that are not possible in many other languages with analogous passive formations to the above.
The active voice is the typical word order. We put the subject (the topic or the theme) first. The subject is the ‘doer’ or agent of the verb: Edward Barnes designed these houses in the 1880s. (active) In the passive, the person or thing that the action was done to becomes the topic or theme.
The Passive Voice. Perfect English Grammar. Download this explanation in PDF here. See all my exercises about the passive here. An active sentence like I drank two cups of coffee has the subject first (the person or thing that does the verb), followed by the verb, and finally the object (the person or thing that the action happens to).
The term 'passive voice' describes a verb whose action is performed on the subject not by the subject. Passive voice is the opposite of active voice. For example, 'The sheriff was shot' is an example of the passive voice. 'I shot the sheriff' is the active voice.
We use the passive voice to change the focus of the sentence. My bike was stolen. (passive – focus on my bike) Someone stole my bike. (active – focus on someone) We often use the passive: when we prefer not to mention who or what does the action (for example, it's not known, it's obvious or we don't want to say)
Although the passive voice is less common than the active voice, there are several good reasons to sometimes use the passive. On this page we look at how to construct the passive voice and when and why to use it.
