Passive voice: use cases
For many people who study English,passive voice (passive voice) is very difficult to understand the structure. Despite the fact that there is also a similar form in Russian, for example, The results of the contest will be announced tomorrow or The report was delivered yesterday, the use of this grammatical construction ina foreign language often causes difficulties. In our native language, we operate with various forms in an unconscious manner, using an innate sense of intuition. Fortunately, considering the English passive voice, you can also bring specific cases of use and paint forms of education. But, first of all, it is necessary to understand what this structure is.
So, the passive voice is the formal use cases:
1. If you do not know who committed the action.
They were robbed yesterday. Yesterday they were robbed. It is not known who did this, one can only assume: Somebody robbed them yesterday. In general, if in an active voice the subject can be represented by a word somebody, it is more appropriate to use passive voice.
An earthquake is measured on the Richter scale. The earthquake is measured on the Richter scale. Of course, we can assume thatseismologists, specialists or scientists change the strength of earthquake on the Richter scale, but in this situation it does not matter - no matter who measures, the very 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 passive voice is equivalent to the form of the active one. Even if we know that the police caught a criminal The police caught the crime yesterday, in this proposal it is more appropriate to use the passive, as its use gives the proposal of officiality.
In addition to formal cases ofconstruction, it is possible to mention more specific situations in which it is appropriate to use passive voice. Examples of such situations include cases where it is for certain known who did the action, but you do not want to mention the names.
The use of this design is common among children who do not want to admit to misconduct and prefer to use forms like Look, the vase has been broken or All sweets have been eaten instead I have broken the vase and I have eaten all sweets. In addition, passive voice is appropriateuse in the texts of business, political, scientific and technical content. To make it official, it is used in business letters, reports, instructions, articles, etc. Also, the use of passive is raspascheno in news magazines and popular science magazines.
</ p>>