It uses three words whereas the second passive voice version needs five. Who did it? The second passive voice example gives all the facts, but the third example is the most lucid and concise. So looking at our World War 2 example, Poland was invaded. Why Do People Believe Passive Voice Is Bad?Īlthough the passive voice is perfectly correct and sometimes even preferable, it may be a trifle vague – especially when doers are omitted. “Germany invaded Poland.” That’s active voice.The doer comes after the thing that was done. “Poland was invaded by Germany.” That’s passive voice.“Poland was invaded.” Passive voice – the doer is absent.If the person or thing responsible for doing the actions is either omitted or occurs in the sentence AFTER the thing that happened, AND if you see a past participle straight after the form of “to be,” it’s passive voice.
To identify passive voice, look at what happened and look at who was responsible for doing it. Is There an Easy Way to Identify Passive Voice? Further, “confused” is an adjective that describes a feeling or state. “I know how it feels to be confused,” is also active voice because the subject “I” comes before the thing that happened. In our example, “was” is a form of “to be” and the past participle is “passed.”įorms of “to be” are: was, is, am, are, have been, has, will be, being, and will have been.Īm I contradicting my statement that “to be” (and its forms) does not always indicate passive voice? No. Also, you can look for forms of “to be” followed by a past participle. How do we know which is which? In passive voice, the doer comes after the thing that was done. The first sentence makes the paper into the subject and does not emphasize the verb or who committed the act. In the second sentence, you have a normal structure of a subject (professor) doing something active (passing) to an object (paper). “The professor passed the paper.” That’s active voice.“The paper was passed by the professor.” That’s passive voice.Passive reverses the position of the subject (the doer) and the object (the thing that is acted on). It’s important to actually learn your grammar. The fact is, they’re quite capable of missing passive voice, and they’re quite capable of missing real grammatical errors, or identifying correct sentences as being incorrect. They can help, but they can also be a real pain in parts of the anatomy I will not mention here. Not necessarily – “to be” is sometimes, but not always, passive voice. When You See a Form Of “To Be,” It’s Passive Voice There are even times when it’s absolutely necessary. No, no, no, and absolutely no! Using passive voice is not wrong. This is the worst one, and the thought that many believe this is already turning me into a werewolf.
I’m willing to sacrifice the monster coming out so you can rid yourself of these passive voice falsehoods.
#Checking for active voice microsoft word mac how to#
Before we show how to identify passive voice, let’s dispel a few myths that make yours truly turn into a hairy, clawed monster every time they’re repeated.
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