- Title：Common writing errors by non-native speakers of English #3: Passive Voice
- News Date：2015-07-16
When using the active voice, we have the standard subject—verb—object construction. Passive voice is reversed; the object/person receiving the action becomes subject of the sentence, while the actor is moved to end of the sentence (or is sometimes entirely absent). Let’s look at the sentence.
Hundreds of volunteers were mobilized this morning to assist with the loading, as all hope these supplies may reach the hands of the survivors as soon as possible.
The example shows how the passive voice can be used both correctly and incorrectly. If our sentence was “Hundreds of volunteers were mobilized this morning to assist with the loading” then this would be a perfectly good use of the passive voice. Why? Because in this example, the actor, (i.e. the group or person that mobilized the volunteers) is not as important to the overall meaning of the sentence as the recipient of the action (i.e. the hundreds of volunteers who were mobilized) and thus it can be safely left out by using the passive voice.
To continue reading "Common writing errors by non-native speakers of English #3", visit our TPS e-paper, Facebook page, or TPS Blog.
TPS Team
- Attach File：
- Reference Link：
- Poster：
- Last Update Time：2015-07-16 PM 10:50
