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Definition 2024

See also: passive-voice

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

(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.

grammatical term

Albanian: pësore (sq) f
Arabic: صِيغَة مَجْهُول f ‎(ṣīḡat majhūl), مَبْنِي مَجْهُول m ‎(mabnī majhūl)
Armenian: կրավորական սեռ ‎(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
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)

Maori: whakahāngū
Norman: passif m
Korean: 수동태 (ko) ‎(sudongtae) (受動態 (ko))
Latin: genus passivum, passivum
Latvian: ciešamā kārta (lv) f
Norwegian: passiv
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
Spanish: voz pasiva f
Swedish: passivum (sv) n, passiv form c