Use the passive voice when you don’t know who is ... rather than focusing on who or what is doing the action. For example: Le bâtiment a été construit en 1990. – The building was built ...

A sentence is in the "passive voice" when the subject is being acted upon by the verb. For example, the following sentence is in the active voice: "She ate the hamburger." She is the subject, and she ...

If it makes sense, congratulations! You’ve probably got yourself some passive voice. For example: Popular grammar guides have contributed both to what linguist Geoff Pullum calls the “fear and ...

We speak differently than we write. For comprehension development, children need exposure to syntax common to both.

To choose between active and passive voice, consider above all what you are discussing (your topic) and place it in the subject position. For example, should you write "The preprocessor sorts the ...

In English, there are two voices--active and passive. If the subject of a sentence performs the action of the verb, the verb is said to be in the "active voice"; for example: I stopped. I bathed. The ...

As I said above, it is appropriate to use the passive voice when it clarifies your meaning. Here is an appropriate example: "In the past three decades, interest in the discipline of communication has ...

Writing in the active voice makes the meaning clear while keeping sentences from becoming complicated and wordy. Sentences using passive voice are not necessarily wrong, just less effective than ...