passive voice

See also: passive-voice

English

Examples
"The ball was kicked by Fred." (as opposed to "Fred kicked the ball.")

Noun

passive voice (usually uncountable, plural passive voices)

1. (grammar) The form of a transitive verb in which its subject receives the action.

   The passive voice is sometimes criticized for de-emphasizing the actor. ["is ... criticized" is passive.]

   Many languages, including English, use auxiliary verbs in constructing the passive voice.

Antonyms

• active voice

Coordinate terms

• active voice
• antipassive voice
• mediopassive voice
• middle voice
• reflexive verb

Translations

grammatical term

• Albanian: pësore (sq) f
• Arabic: صِيغَة مَجْهُول‎ f (ṣīḡat majhūl), مَبْنِي مَجْهُول‎ m (mabnī majhūl)
• Armenian: կրավորական սեռ (hy) (kravorakan seṙ)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 被動語態, 被动语态 (bèidòng yǔtài)

• Crimean Tatar: etilgen derece
• Czech: trpný rod m, pasivum n
• Dutch: lijdende vorm (nl) m
• Esperanto: pasiva voĉo
• Finnish: passiivi (fi)
• French: voix passive (fr) f
• Georgian: ვნებითი გვარი (vnebiti gvari)
• German: Leideform (de) f, Leidform f, Leidensform f, Passiv (de) n, Passivum n, Passivform f
• Greek: παθητική φωνή (el) f (pathitikí foní)
• Icelandic: þolmynd (is) f
• Italian: forma passiva f, passivo (it) m

• Japanese: 所相 (しょそう, shosō), 受動態 (ja) (じゅどうたい, judōtai), 受身 (うけみ, ukemi)
• Korean: 수동태 (ko) (sudongtae) (受動態 (ko))
• Latin: genus passivum, passivum
• Latvian: ciešamā kārta f
• Maori: whakahāngū
• Norman: passif m
• Norwegian: passiv (no)
• Polish: strona bierna (pl) f
• Portuguese: voz passiva (pt) f
• Romanian: diateză pasivă f
• Russian: страда́тельный зало́г (ru) m (stradátelʹnyj zalóg), пассив (ru) m (passiv), пасси́вный зало́г (ru) m (passívnyj zalóg)
• Scottish Gaelic: guth fulangach m
• Serbo-Croatian: pasiv (sh) m
• Slovak: trpný rod, pasívum
• Spanish: voz pasiva f
• Swedish: passivum (sv) n, passiv form c
• Tagalog: tinig-balintiyak