How to use the Passive
The passive voice is used to show interest in the person or object that experiences an action rather than the person or object that performs the action, e.g.
- The passive is used ...: We are interested in the passive, not who uses it.
- The house was built in 1654 => We are interested in the house, not the builder.
- The road is being repaired => We are interested in the road, not the people repairing it.
In other words, the most important thing or person becomes the subject of the sentence.
Sometimes we use the passive voice because we don't know or cannot express who or what performed the action:
- I noticed that a window had been left open
- Every year people are killed on our roads.
If we want to say who or what performs the action, we use the preposition by:
- "A Hard Day's Night" was written by the Beatles
- ET was directed by Spielberg
The passive voice is often used in formal or scientific texts:
- A great deal of meaning is conveyed by a few well-chosen words.
- Our planet is wrapped in a mass of gases.
- Waste materials are disposed of in a variety of ways.
Some situations should use passive voice
1. Reports of crimes or incidents with unknown perpetrators
- My car was stolen yesterday.
The passive voice emphasizes the stolen item and the action of theft.
2. Scientific contexts
- The rat was placed into a T-shaped maze.
Who places the rat into the maze? Scientists, duh. But that’s less important than the experiment they’re conducting. Therefore, passive voice.
3. When you want to emphasize an action itself and the doer of the action is irrelevant or distracting:
- The president was sworn in on a cold January morning.
How many people can remember off the top of their heads who swears in presidents? Clearly the occasion of swearing in the commander in chief is the thing to emphasize here. In each of the above contexts, the action itself—or the person or thing receiving the action—is the part that matters. That means the performer of the action can appear in a prepositional phrase or be absent from the sentence altogether.