'''Passive''' [[voice]] is a [[grammatical]] voice common in many of the world's [[languages]]. Passive is used in a clause whose subject [[expresses]] the theme or patient of the main verb. That is, the subject undergoes an [[action]] or has its state changed. A sentence whose theme is marked as grammatical subject is called a passive sentence. In [[contrast]], a sentence in which the subject has the [[agent]] role is called an [[active]] sentence, and its verb is [[expressed]] in active voice. Many languages have both an active and a passive voice; this allows for greater [[flexibility]] in sentence construction, as either the [[semantic]] agent or patient may take the syntactic role of subject. | '''Passive''' [[voice]] is a [[grammatical]] voice common in many of the world's [[languages]]. Passive is used in a clause whose subject [[expresses]] the theme or patient of the main verb. That is, the subject undergoes an [[action]] or has its state changed. A sentence whose theme is marked as grammatical subject is called a passive sentence. In [[contrast]], a sentence in which the subject has the [[agent]] role is called an [[active]] sentence, and its verb is [[expressed]] in active voice. Many languages have both an active and a passive voice; this allows for greater [[flexibility]] in sentence construction, as either the [[semantic]] agent or patient may take the syntactic role of subject. |