For many English learners, the passive voice (passive voice) is a very difficult structure to understand. Despite the fact that in Russian there is also a similar form, 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 is often difficult. In our native language, we operate with various forms unconsciously, using our innate sense of intuition. Fortunately, considering the English passive voice, it is also possible to give specific cases of use and describe the forms of education. But, first of all, you should understand what this structure is.
The voice category, active or passive, indicates whether the subject performs an action or a certain action is performed regardless of the presence of the subject in the sentence, for example, Alex performed a stunning presentation at the meeting yesterday. In this situation, the subject is important - Alex, who performed the action. In a sentence A stunningpresentation was performed at the meeting yesterday the subject who performed the action is absent - the action itself is important.
So, passive voice - formal use cases:
1. If you don't know who did the action.
They were robbed yesterday. They were robbed yesterday. It is not known who did this, we can only assume: Somebody robbed them yesterday. In general, if in the active voice the subject can be represented by the word somebody, then it is more appropriate to use the passive voice.
2. If it doesn't matter who took the action or the subject can be represented by an unspecified group of people.
An earthquake is measured on the Richter scale. An earthquake is measured on the Richter scale. Of course, we can assume that seismologists, specialists or scientists change the strength of an earthquake on the Richter scale, but in this situation it does not matter - it does not matter who measures, the 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 the passive voice is equivalent to the form of the active voice. Even if we know that the police caught the criminal The police caught the criminal yesterday, it is more appropriate to use a passive in this sentence, since its use makes the sentence formal.
In addition to the formal cases of using this construction, we can mention more specific situations in which it is appropriate to use the passive voice. Examples of such situations include cases wherewhen you know exactly who did the action, but you don't want to mention names.
For example, in the case of spreading unofficial information, gossip: imagine the situation at work - Anna told me that Mr Smith is going to fire Jack. By putting this information in a passive, you can get a better offer in terms of tact and delicacy, without embarrassing the people who shared this data: I was told that Jack is going to be fired soon.
The use of this construction is common among children who do not want to admit to wrongdoing and prefer to use forms like 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, it is appropriate to use the passive voice in texts of business, political, scientific and technical content. To give formality, it is used in business letters, reports, instructions, articles, etc. Also, the use of the passive rpas is common in news publications and popular science magazines.
