passive voice: "A category used in the classification of verb forms serving to indicate the relation of the subject to the action. [or]

Traditionally used of the opposition between active and passive (see active adj. 3, passive adj. 3); however some languages, for example classical Greek, also have a middle voice (see middle adj. 4a)." OED

Example of Passive Voice: Desirable results were yielded from the experiment. 

Example of Active Voice: The experiment yielded desirable results. 

PASSIVE VOICE

As its name suggests, passive voice is a weak grammatical construction. In a sentence passive voice suggests that action happens to an object rather than an object enacting an action to something else. Some typical examples of passive verbs: be, am, is, are, was, were, being, and been. A passive sentence might read like this: Bing Crosby was heard crooning from the radio. This suggests that there’s a person standing just next to the radio listening to Crosby, but this person doesn’t actually exist as someone important.

TO LEARN MORE:

Consider browsing this helpful handout: 

1. Active & Passive Voice

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