Passive voice: use cases

For many people learning English, passive voice (passive voice) is very difficult to understand the structure. Despite the fact that there is a similar form in Russian, for example, the results of the competition will be announced tomorrow or the report was submitted yesterday , the use of this grammatical construction in a foreign language often causes difficulties. In our native language, we operate with various forms in an unconscious way, using an innate sense of intuition. Fortunately, considering the English passive voice, you can also cite specific cases of use and paint forms of education. But, first of all, it is necessary to understand what this structure is.

The category of the pledge, active or passive, indicates whether the subject produces an action or a certain action is committed regardless of the subject's availability in the proposal, for example, Alex performed a stunning presentation at the meeting yesterday . In this situation, the subject is important - Alex , who committed the action. In the sentence A stunning presentation was performed at the meeting yesterday, the subject who committed the action is absent - the action itself is important.

So, the passive voice is the formal use cases:

1. If you do not know who committed the action.
They were robbed yesterday. Yesterday they were robbed . It is not known who did this, you can only assume: Somebody robbed them yesterday . In general, if in an active voice the subject can be represented by the word somebody , then it is more appropriate to use a passive voice.

2. If it does not matter who committed the act or the subject can be represented by an undetermined group of persons.
An earthquake is measured on the Richter scale . The earthquake is measured on the Richter scale . Of course, we can assume that seismologists, specialists or scientists change the magnitude of the earthquake on the Richter scale, but in this situation it does not matter - no matter who measures, the very fact of measurement is important.

3. If we need to convey official information, for example, in the news.
The criminal was caught yesterday . In this situation, the form of passive voice is equivalent to the form of the active one. Even if we know that the police caught the criminal The police caught the criminal yesterday , it is more appropriate to use this offer in this proposal, since its use gives the proposal of officiality.

In addition to formal cases of using this design, we can mention more specific situations in which it is appropriate to use passive voice. Examples of such situations include cases where it is for certain known who did the action, but you do not want to mention the names.

For example, in case of dissemination of unofficial information, gossip: imagine the situation at work - Anna told me that Mr Smith is going to fire Jack . Having stated this information in a passive, you can get a better proposal in terms of tact and delicacy, without putting in an uncomfortable position the people who shared this data: I was told that Jack is going to be fired soon .

The use of this design is common among children who do not want to admit to misconduct and prefer to use forms such as Look, the vase has been broken or All sweets have been eaten instead of I have broken the vase and I have eaten all sweets . In addition, passive pledge is appropriate to use in the texts of business, political, scientific and technical content. To make it official, it is used in business letters, reports, instructions, articles, etc. Also, the use of passive is raspascheno in news magazines and popular science magazines.