# Grammar/style question

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grammar-style-question/91669>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [November 5, 2001, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grammar-style-question/91669 "2001-11-05T20:59:34Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![John\_Kentzel-Griffin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ccd318/32.png) [@John\_Kentzel-Griffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Kentzel-Griffin)\
**Post date:** [November 6, 2001, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grammar-style-question/91669/21 "2001-11-06T19:46:33Z")

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**ultrafilter** ,

You are right. I was looking at “there are” rather than at “is it highly favored”.

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**Author:** ![Alfie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9f8e36/32.png) [@Alfie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alfie)\
**Post date:** [November 11, 2001, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grammar-style-question/91669/22 "2001-11-11T23:21:30Z")

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You can go to far with this business about avoiding the passive voice, I mean, who would rephrase Shakespeare’s “To be or not to be, that is the question” as “To exist or not, therein lies the question”?

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**Author:** ![barbitu8](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/839c29/32.png) [@barbitu8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/barbitu8)\
**Post date:** [November 11, 2001, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grammar-style-question/91669/23 "2001-11-11T23:27:36Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Alfie \*  
> \*\*You can go to far with this business about avoiding the passive voice, I mean, who would rephrase Shakespeare’s “To be or not to be, that is the question” as “To exist or not, therein lies the question”? \*\*

As Ultrafilter has corrected me, there is no passive voice in that quote, as the subject is a form of “to be,” having no direct object. Even though “There are” is not technically a passive voice, I still believe, and no one is going to convince me otherwise, so don’t try, it falls in that general category.

“To be or not to be is the question,” if you want subject and verb (subject being “to be or not to be,” which appears to me to be a compound predicate noun. Very ingenious of Shakespeare. Of course, I’ll probably be corrected again. 😃

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**Author:** ![Alfie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9f8e36/32.png) [@Alfie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alfie)\
**Post date:** [November 12, 2001, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grammar-style-question/91669/24 "2001-11-12T00:04:30Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by barbitu8 \*  
> \*\*
> 
> > [@](#):
> >
> > \*Originally posted by Alfie \*  
> > \*\*You can go to far with this business about avoiding the passive voice, I mean, who would rephrase Shakespeare’s “To be or not to be, that is the question” as “To exist or not, therein lies the question”? \*\*
> 
> As Ultrafilter has corrected me, there is no passive voice in that quote, as the subject is a form of “to be,” having no direct object. Even though “There are” is not technically a passive voice, I still believe, and no one is going to convince me otherwise, so don’t try, it falls in that general category.
> 
> “To be or not to be is the question,” if you want subject and verb (subject being “to be or not to be,” which appears to me to be a compound predicate noun. Very ingenious of Shakespeare. Of course, I’ll probably be corrected again. 😃 \*\*

Er, I should have clarified: some style-hounds go even further and condemn almost any use of the verb “to be,” calling it a “weak verb.” So you wonder whether they’d feel compelled to avoid even the present progressive…

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