The passive voice is often used to emphasize the action instead of the actor. Although it is considered weak writing to overuse the passive voice, there are times when passive voice is effective. It is especially useful when reporting experiments.

Active: subject + verb + object

Vandals destroyed the house.

Passive: object + be + participle + subject

The house was destroyed by vandals.

The house was destroyed.

Verbs not used in the passive voice:

Only transitive verbs (verbs that are followed by an object) are used in the passive. It is not possible to use intransitive verbs in the passive voice. Examples:

happen
sleep
come
seem
appear
exist

Incorrect: It was happened yesterday.

Continue to Passive Forms.

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