Passives with and without an agent

Passives with an agent

We use the preposition by to introduce the doer or the agent of the action. We use this structure when the agent is important:

Mr Ward has been arrested by the FBI.

The community was destroyed by a flood in 1862.

When the subject of the passive clause is not the real agent of the verb, we use other prepositions in passive structures:

I’d been decorating the bedroom and I was coveredin paint. (Paint isn’t the real agent; I am the agent; I was painting.)

When the doer or agent of the action is an instrument, we use with:

The door was smashed open with a hammer.

Passives without an agent

Passive structures without an agent are very common. We use these structures when an agent is not important, or is unknown or obvious:

All applications must be received before 31 July.

The data was analysed and the results have just been published.

I walked to work. The car’sbeingrepaired.

It and there

We often use an impersonal expression with it or there when the agent is not important:

It was decided to charge £10 per ticket.

It has been estimated that in Tanzania one elephant in three is an orphan.

There were no comments given about the proposal and no decisions made. (No comments were given … no decisions were made.)

See also:

It

There is, there’s and there are

• trainers
• trainers
• training
• training and development
• training-and-development
• training bra
• training-bra
• training-college
• training college
• training-course
• training course
• training-ground
• training ground
• training-group
• training group
• training-manual
• training manual
• training needs analysis
• training-needs-analysis
• trainings
• training ship
• training-ship
• training shoe
• training table
• training-table