To avoid mentioning the agent of an action.ģ. To keep discourse topics in the subject position of sentences.Ģ. Thirteen people were injured by a tornado in Florida.ġ. The passive voice allows speakers and writers to place emphasis on the receiver of an action.Ī. Both French and English are spoken in Canada.ģ. This use of passive voice not only helps. Much tobacco is grown in Eastern Europe.Į. By phrasing the second sentence in passive voice, it allows the writer to flow from already-stated ideas to new points. (The word "agent" refers to the performer of an action.)Ĭ. In the interests of 'plain English' that the average person can understand, many governments now encourage civil servants to write in the active voice. ![]() The passive voice allows speakers and writers not to mention an "agent," especially when information about the agent is unknown, unimportant, obvious, confidential, or difficult to identify. Passive voice can sound dull and bureaucratic, and is typical of official writing. After the war, it was destroyed so that the world would not learn how the British broke codes.Ģ. It was used to decipher Hitler’s confidential messages to his generals. The first electronic computer was built in Britain during World War II. ![]() Then, on the way to the towing compound, it was rammed by a truck and demolished.ī. I had just finished paying off my new car when it was towed by the police. In other words, a passive sentence emphasizes the. ![]() The passive voice allows speakers and writers to keep discourse topics in the subject position over successive clauses while adding new information in the remainder of the clause. Passive voice is when a sentence puts the direct object before the verb, and the subject after the verb. As stated previously, the more common voice construction in English is the active voice however, there are generally three times when the passive voice is the structure of choice for speakers and writers ( Celce-Murcia & Larsen-Freeman, 1983 Robinson, 2000):ġ. Passive voice sentences often use more words, can be vague, and can lead to a tangle of prepositional phrases.
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