Passive Voice

Passive Voice sentences are used in special situations to focus our attention on the action or receiver, hiding the doer. We prefer Passive Voice in less personal, more objective, and scientific speeches and writing.

When our main interest is focused on the verb activity rather than the active subject, we immediately turn to use passive voice, leaving the active subject aside. Examine the following sentences.

Active voice

People speak English all over the world.

Too much weight has been given to the vague subject-People.

Passive voice

English is spoken all over the world.

The agent ‘by people’ is unnecessary here because no other animal speaks.