Passive Voice Flashcards, test questions and answers

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What is Passive Voice?

The passive voice is a grammatical construction in which the subject of a sentence is acted upon by the verb. This means that rather than the subject performing an action, they are on the receiving end of it. For example, instead of saying John hit the ball, one might say The ball was hit by John. The passive voice can be used to emphasize either the action or its recipient; in both cases, however, it can make a sentence sound more formal and sophisticated than its active counterpart. The passive voice is often used to make general statements that don’t focus on who or what performed an action. For example, instead of saying The teacher gave us our grades one could say Our grades were given to us by the teacher. This allows for sentences to remain concise while still providing all necessary information without needing to specify who performed said action; this also allows for more flexibility when making comparisons between different scenarios as no specific actor has been specified. In addition to making general statements about certain actions being taken, using the passive voice can also help emphasize certain things being done onto someone else particularly if you wish to draw attention away from whoever performed said action and towards its recipient(s). For instance, instead of saying Bob stole my wallet one might choose to say My wallet was stolen from me by Bob emphasizing how something was taken away from them rather than just what Bob did wrong. Overall, using the passive voice can add some variety into our language and provide a way for us to express ourselves more clearly without having too much detail or specificity in our sentences. It’s important though not to overuse this tool as doing so could have negative effects on your writing style such as making it seem too formal or stilted so remember that balance is key when trying out this grammatical construct.