Grammarpassive

Grammarpassive refers to the passive voice in grammar, a syntactic construction in which the subject of a sentence is the recipient of an action rather than its agent. In many languages, the agent can be expressed with a by-phrase or omitted entirely, especially when the agent is unknown, unimportant, or assumed.

In English, the passive is formed with a form of the auxiliary verb to be plus the past participle of the main verb. Examples: "The letter was written yesterday," "The cakes have been baked," and "The work will be finished." The agent may be included: "The letter was written by Maria." When the agent is omitted, the sentence is agentless but still passive: "The letter was written yesterday." Not all verbs can be passivized; intransitive verbs or stative verbs often resist standard passivization or require special constructions, such as a related adjective (The door is closed).

Passives also extend to modals: "The work could be finished," "The project should be completed." The get-passive, using get instead of be, is a related variation in English and often emphasizes change of state or a more informal tone: "The window got broken."

Functions and style: passives shift focus from the doer to the patient or result, making statements more formal or objective, general, or impersonal. They are common in formal writing, scientific descriptions, and procedural instructions, where the emphasis is on action and outcome rather than on who performs the action.

Cross-linguistic note: many languages have passive constructions, but they differ in how they mark voice, what constitutes the agent, and whether passives are obligatory, optional, or replaced by other forms such as antipassives or diathesis alternations.