Comments for When do we use the passive? Average Rating Click here to add your own comments

Jul 10, 2013 Rating The passive voice by: IELTS buddy Hi, The main reason we use the passive voice is when the focus is on the action, rather than the subject. It is not important, not known, or maybe just obvious, who is performing the action so we do not say. For example: "The man was arrested at his home" Only the police can arrest someone, so we don't need to mention them. In a passive sentence the object becomes the subject, and we change the verb to the past participle and add the verb 'to be': "The police arrested the man at his home" "The man was arrested at his home (by the police)" A good example for IELTS is when we write about a process in task 1. We are interested in the process, NOT who is doing it. You can see more about that and further explanations of the passive here.

Click here to add your own comments Return to Grammar Questions.