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This reminds me of the "Hemingway" app that failed Hemingway: http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=10416 http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=10416 Can I

This reminds me of the "Hemingway" app that failed Hemingway: http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=10416 http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=10416 Can I also just point out that "I was exhausted." is not passive voice! And "Our work here is done." also shouldn't be highlighted, it's absolutely fine. What the hell? With these kinds of false positives, this seems like it would do more harm than good.

donutz 10y ago
You sure that's not passive? Exhausted: drained, used up. By what? Sounds passive to me.
- korethr 10y ago
  Your question, by what, shows why it's not passive. In this case, "exhausted" is an adjective, and thus the sentence is not passive voice. The subject (I) is not receiving the action of getting used up or drained, it is doing the action of being in a drained, used up state. Now, if the sentence was something else like "I was exhausted by his tiresome ramblings," then yes, that would be passive voice.
mwsherman 10y ago
Passive voice is merely a form of speech. It’s not blanket-wrong. It serves to diminish the actor, which can be a legitimate choice. “He was diagnosed with flu” is passive voice, and appropriate, because the diagnoser is not important. We care more about the flu than the doctor. “Mistakes were made” is evasive and serves to obscure, and should be avoided.
- conistonwater 10y ago
  It could also be the case that "mistakes were made" is poor, but without it having anything to do with it being in passive voice. Passive voice also doesn't necessarily "diminish the actor", consider "She was diagnosed by the doctors at X, and the diagnosis was later overturned by a senior doctor.". That's a kind of a blanket claim about passive that's just bound to be wrong when you check it on actual English sentences (I think Pullum's paper I linked to in another comment addresses this well).
- stan_rogers 10y ago
  It also manages clean transitions when introducing new actors. The passive voice allows you to put the known at the beginning of a sentence and the new information nearer the end. Without the passive, each individual sentence may be objectively more felicitous, but there is a cognitive disconnection between them. It might even be worth pointing out that the "authoritative basis" for all of this passive prohibition is an unfortunate misreading of Strunk & White. The Elements of Style merely points out some cringeworthy ways to misuse the passive, and suggests that it shouldn't be your go-to voice.
  - eru 10y ago
    Oh, The Elements of Style even gets lot of stuff wrong. Their examples of `passive voice' aren't even all passive.
jlos 10y ago
The app is correct, both of those phrases are passive. Grammatically the passive voice uses the equative verb to be with a past participle of the verb. Both those phrases satisfy that condition. Semantically, the passive voice involves action being done to the subject. Both those phrases also meet that condition. Rearrange them and you'l see: [1] "I was exhuasted" --> "${SUBJECT} exhausted me". The phrase may not seem passive because you've elided the subject, which is part of the problem of the passive voice, it lacks clarity [2] "Our work here is done" --> "We completed our work" Like the first phrase, this phrase elides the subject of this sentence, the individuals doing the work. In this case, including the subject ("We") may feel repetitive because of the pronoun "our", but its still more precise. Also, passive voice isn't bad, however it most often lacks clarity. Sometimes that's okay, and sometimes you want some flexibility with your sentences for effect, such as ending a sentence with the subject (one of the primary reasons to use the passive voice).
- conistonwater 10y ago
  > "${SUBJECT} exhausted me" I don't think that a correct analysis of the sentence. The exhausted is an adjective, similar to I am tired, but saying "Something tired me" would have a totally different meaning, because it's a different, unrelated sentence. ("I am covered in green paint." also doesn't seem like it's passive voice, but maybe I'm wrong.) As far as I can tell, "our work here is done" is indeed passive voice, but it is also perfectly fine English, and thus must not be highlighted. "I was exhausted" absolutely does not "lack clarity". What could it possibly be unclear about? Looking at http://www.lel.ed.ac.uk/~gpullum/passive_loathing.pdf http://www.lel.ed.ac.uk/~gpullum/passive_loathing.pdf, I'm also suspicious of your definition of passive (p.7): > ...passives do not always contain be and do not always contain a past participle. They also do not always obscure the role or responsibility of the doer. They may or may not have a subject (the passive clause in any monument defaced by vandals does not), and they may or may not have a by-phrase (The president has been assassinated does not). Sometimes they specify the agent of an action very clearly (as in It was thrown at them by hooligans), and sometimes not (as in It was thrown at them); sometimes they specify the undergoer (as in A surfer was attacked by a shark) and sometimes not (as in Being attacked by a shark is no fun). Often (as in (3)) there is no action whatsoever, rendering the strange phrase “receives the action” inappropriate.
askldfhjkasfhd 10y ago
I think of it like a code linter; I won't follow every suggestion, but it's nice having another set of "eyes" to point out mistakes.

donutz 10y ago

You sure that's not passive? Exhausted: drained, used up. By what? Sounds passive to me.

korethr 10y ago
Your question, by what, shows why it's not passive. In this case, "exhausted" is an adjective, and thus the sentence is not passive voice. The subject (I) is not receiving the action of getting used up or drained, it is doing the action of being in a drained, used up state. Now, if the sentence was something else like "I was exhausted by his tiresome ramblings," then yes, that would be passive voice.

mwsherman 10y ago

Passive voice is merely a form of speech. It’s not blanket-wrong. It serves to diminish the actor, which can be a legitimate choice. “He was diagnosed with flu” is passive voice, and appropriate, because the diagnoser is not important. We care more about the flu than the doctor. “Mistakes were made” is evasive and serves to obscure, and should be avoided.

conistonwater 10y ago
It could also be the case that "mistakes were made" is poor, but without it having anything to do with it being in passive voice. Passive voice also doesn't necessarily "diminish the actor", consider "She was diagnosed by the doctors at X, and the diagnosis was later overturned by a senior doctor.". That's a kind of a blanket claim about passive that's just bound to be wrong when you check it on actual English sentences (I think Pullum's paper I linked to in another comment addresses this well).
stan_rogers 10y ago
It also manages clean transitions when introducing new actors. The passive voice allows you to put the known at the beginning of a sentence and the new information nearer the end. Without the passive, each individual sentence may be objectively more felicitous, but there is a cognitive disconnection between them. It might even be worth pointing out that the "authoritative basis" for all of this passive prohibition is an unfortunate misreading of Strunk & White. The Elements of Style merely points out some cringeworthy ways to misuse the passive, and suggests that it shouldn't be your go-to voice.
- eru 10y ago
  Oh, The Elements of Style even gets lot of stuff wrong. Their examples of `passive voice' aren't even all passive.

jlos 10y ago

The app is correct, both of those phrases are passive. Grammatically the passive voice uses the equative verb to be with a past participle of the verb. Both those phrases satisfy that condition. Semantically, the passive voice involves action being done to the subject. Both those phrases also meet that condition. Rearrange them and you'l see: [1] "I was exhuasted" --> "${SUBJECT} exhausted me". The phrase may not seem passive because you've elided the subject, which is part of the problem of the passive voice, it lacks clarity [2] "Our work here is done" --> "We completed our work" Like the first phrase, this phrase elides the subject of this sentence, the individuals doing the work. In this case, including the subject ("We") may feel repetitive because of the pronoun "our", but its still more precise. Also, passive voice isn't bad, however it most often lacks clarity. Sometimes that's okay, and sometimes you want some flexibility with your sentences for effect, such as ending a sentence with the subject (one of the primary reasons to use the passive voice).

conistonwater 10y ago
> "${SUBJECT} exhausted me" I don't think that a correct analysis of the sentence. The exhausted is an adjective, similar to I am tired, but saying "Something tired me" would have a totally different meaning, because it's a different, unrelated sentence. ("I am covered in green paint." also doesn't seem like it's passive voice, but maybe I'm wrong.) As far as I can tell, "our work here is done" is indeed passive voice, but it is also perfectly fine English, and thus must not be highlighted. "I was exhausted" absolutely does not "lack clarity". What could it possibly be unclear about? Looking at http://www.lel.ed.ac.uk/~gpullum/passive_loathing.pdf http://www.lel.ed.ac.uk/~gpullum/passive_loathing.pdf, I'm also suspicious of your definition of passive (p.7): > ...passives do not always contain be and do not always contain a past participle. They also do not always obscure the role or responsibility of the doer. They may or may not have a subject (the passive clause in any monument defaced by vandals does not), and they may or may not have a by-phrase (The president has been assassinated does not). Sometimes they specify the agent of an action very clearly (as in It was thrown at them by hooligans), and sometimes not (as in It was thrown at them); sometimes they specify the undergoer (as in A surfer was attacked by a shark) and sometimes not (as in Being attacked by a shark is no fun). Often (as in (3)) there is no action whatsoever, rendering the strange phrase “receives the action” inappropriate.

askldfhjkasfhd 10y ago

I think of it like a code linter; I won't follow every suggestion, but it's nice having another set of "eyes" to point out mistakes.