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The English passive voice is used less often than the active voice, [3] but frequency varies according to the writer's style and the given field of writing. Contemporary style guides discourage excessive use of the passive voice but generally consider it to be acceptable in certain situations, such as when the patient is the topic of the ...
A passive voice construction is a grammatical voice construction that is found in many languages. [1] In a clause with passive voice, the grammatical subject expresses the theme or patient of the main verb – that is, the person or thing that undergoes the action or has its state changed. [2]
The usual passive voice is the se pasiva, in which the verb is conjugated in the active voice, but preceded by the se particle: La puerta se abre. La puerta se cierra. Estar is used to form what might be termed a static passive voice (not regarded as a passive voice in traditional Spanish grammar; it describes a state that is the result of an ...
In a passive-type construction after certain verbs, with a gap in object or complement position, understood to be filled by the subject of the main clause (see English passive voice § Additional passive constructions): That floor wants/needs scrubbing. It doesn't bear thinking about. As complement of certain prepositions:
Principal is an adjective meaning "main" (though it can also be a noun meaning the head of a college or similar institution). Principle is a noun meaning a fundamental belief or rule of action. Standard: The principal achievement of the nineteenth century is the rise of industry. Standard: He got sent to the principal's office for talking ...
Another example is that a construction like it was difficult to follow him is relatively more common in written language than in spoken language, compared to the alternative packaging to follow him was difficult. [10] A final example, again from English, is that the passive voice is relatively more common in writing than in speaking. [11]
In Klein’s case, a Postal Service spokeswoman said, the problem is the road. Hillman Ridge is paved but narrows to a width slightly larger than a pickup truck as it approaches Klein’s property.
The Elements of Style (also called Strunk & White) is a style guide for formal grammar used in American English writing. The first publishing was written by William Strunk Jr. in 1918, and published by Harcourt in 1920, comprising eight "elementary rules of usage," ten "elementary principles of composition," "a few matters of form," a list of 49 "words and expressions commonly misused," and a ...