Grade 10 Grammar Lesson 34 Using passives
When is the active voice preferable?
When is the passive voice preferable?
- We can present the same information in two different orders. We use active voice if we want to say what the agent (doer) did.
- We use passive voice if we want to say what happened (to the bearer). The ‘agent’ goes in a prepositional phrase with by if we want to mention it.
- Normally, we use the passive in the following circumstances.
the agent is unknown
the agent is ‘people in general’
the agent is unimportant
the agent is ‘obvious’
- We usually prefer a passive structure instead of an active structure with people, we, you, they or somebody as the agent.
- We also prefer to mention the object rather than the subject (agent) first when the action (what happened) is more important than who did it.
- We also prefer passive voice when the agent consists of long expressions.
- We may also use passive imperatives especially in describing procedures. The passive structure of imperatives begins in ‘Let‘.
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