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The most important thing about the passive voice is that you can avoid saying who did something. The headlines read "Hamas terrorists fire rockets at Israel, k
by direwolf20 9mo ago
The most important thing about the passive voice is that you can avoid saying who did something.
The headlines read "Hamas terrorists fire rockets at Israel, killing tens" and the other headlines read "Missiles were shot at Gaza" and "Thousands of Palestinians were killed" [corrected]. Who did that? Nobody knows!
- Sharlin 9mo agoUm, there's no passive in "thousands of Palestinians die". "Thousands of Palestinians killed" is in passive. "Rockets were fired at Israel" would be as well.
- throwgrammar 9mo agoAre you saying that the Jews are behind the passive voice?
- dllthomas 9mo agoYou can avoid specifying agency in the active with some sort of placeholder. Hopefully, maybe, that placeholder is going to be more noticable than the omission of agency in the passive... but it seems more useful to simply ask directly whether agency is clear. "Missiles were shot at Gaza" is passive and avoids specifying agency. "Someone shot missiles at Gaza" is active and avoids specifying agency. "Missiles were fired at Gaza by Israel" is passive and specifies agency. Sometimes you don't even need a placeholder: "Missiles hit Gaza" is active and avoids agency.