Reasons for using Passive voice

Passive voice is a sentence or phrase where the verb’s direct object receives the action. This is different from an active sentence, which reverses this order. It provides more focus on who or what was acted upon rather than by whom or what it was acted upon. This article will explore passive voice, why it is used, and examples of passive voice used for various purposes. There are many grammatical reasons for using passive voice; examples will be given to illustrate both formal and informal uses.

What is Passive Voice?

Passive voice is a grammatical form in which the subject receives action from the verb, not performing it themselves. For instance: It was raining.

The subject-“It” receives “rain” from “was raining.” In general, this grammar style implies that there’s some distance between the subject and their situation or that they’re indirectly experiencing what’s happening to them. This is often seen in phrases such as “I don’t think anything will change” or “I’m sorry for what I’ve done.”

When should you use Passive Voice?

Passive voice is helpful when you want to turn a straightforward and harsh phrase into something more delicate. For example, you might write “Mistakes were made” when you mean “Someone made mistakes.” This turns a general statement into something specific and softens the blow for whoever was involved in the action.

Passive voice is also helpful if you avoid using who or whom in your sentence. For instance, if you say, “The man whom I met looked suspicious,” it’s unclear who met the man (and it doesn’t sound as good as simply saying, “The man looked suspicious”). By using passive voice, you can avoid using who or whom. Instead, the sentence would read, “I met the man.”

What are the Advantages of using Passive Voice?

Passive voice is helpful when you want to distance yourself from what’s happening in your sentence. For instance, if you say, “I’d like steak for dinner,” the statement is bold and confident. However, suppose you change it to passive voice, making the subject the recipient of action rather than its initiator. In that case, it becomes less imperative and more friendly: “I requested dinner to be steak.” The first sentence states that I am hungry and precisely what I want; the second implies that someone else has asked me what I would like for dinner. Many sites provide more than 50 sentences of passive voice, which helps students understand the importance and usage of passive voice.

What are the reasons for using Passive Voice?

Passive voice is helpful when a statement seems too direct or forceful for specific situations. It can take the spotlight off of whoever is taking action and put it on the one who is being acted upon, making your writing softer and more appropriate for various situations. Passive voice is also helpful for avoiding mentioning who exactly did something-this makes your writing more flexible and less tied to one person’s perspective or opinion.

Can you get in trouble for using Passive Voice?

This depends on the nature of the writing you’re composing-you should never promise things you can’t deliver or otherwise try to mislead readers. When in doubt, remember that this form of grammar is used in numerous situations where people are passive recipients of other people’s actions. It’s relatively uncommon to use this style in a situation where someone is acting on their own accord. For example, A politician isn’t going to get in trouble for saying, “My constituents want me to run.” However, if he says, “I will run if my constituents ask me,” he may be accused of trying to say that his constituents forced him into running.

Conclusion:

To conclude, the passive voice is a way of writing that’s particularly formal. It can be combined with other forms of speech to add a singly strong tone and show the speaker/author’s opinion. It’s most commonly used when the speaker/author is unsure if the listener/reader will be annoyed if they use a strong statement or seem too harsh. Passive voice can also be used to hide who did something and a combination of these. Finally, passive voice is often used in formal and informal writing and literature to show emotion, vulnerability and distance between the speaker and the action performed by someone else.