Passive: active and passive
We use the terms active voiceand passive voiceto talk about ways of organising the content of a clause:
Cambridge University Presspublishedthis book.(active)
This bookwas publishedby Cambridge University Press.(passive)
The active voice is the typical word order. We put the subject (the topic or the theme) first. The subject is the ‘doer’ or agent of the verb:
Edward Barnesdesigned these houses in the 1880s.(active)
In the passive, the person or thing that the action was done to becomes the topic or theme. We can leave out the ‘doer’ or agent, or we can place the ‘doer’ in a prepositional phrase (by+ ‘doer’):
These houseswere designed in the 1880s.(passive without agent)
These houseswere designed in the 1880s by Edward Barnes.(passive +by+ agent)
We use the passive when we want to change the focus of a clause, or if the doer of the verb is not important or not known or if we do not want to say who the doer is.