passive
n. countablen. a way of writing a sentence where the person or thing receiving the action comes first. You use it when the person doing the action is not known or not important.
n. a grammatical construction in which the subject of the sentence is the recipient of the action rather than the performer. Often contrasted with the active voice in stylistic and linguistic analysis.
The teacher explained how to form the passive correctly.
Scientific papers often use the passive to maintain an objective tone and focus on the results rather than the researcher.
While overusing the passive can lead to wordy or evasive prose, it remains a vital tool for shifting emphasis toward the entity affected by a specific event.
From Middle English passyf, passyve, from Middle French, French passif, from Latin passivus (“serving to express the suffering of an action; in late Latin literally capable of suffering or feeling”), from passus, past participle of pati (“to suffer”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *peh₁- (“to hurt”); compare patient.
Usually preceded by the definite article ('the passive') when referring to the grammatical category.
The window was broke by him.The window was broken by him.The passive requires the past participle form of the verb, not the simple past.