# How is this the passive voice? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 21, 2015, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-this-the-passive-voice/728412 "2015-08-21T05:20:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2015, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-this-the-passive-voice/728412/1 "2015-08-21T05:20:43Z")
I’ve seen several articles about Josh Duggar now that quote the “apology” he posted (the first one, which they say was quickly deleted and replaced), and two of those articles mention – disapprovingly – of his use of the passive voice. (Reminiscent of Dan Quayle’s lame “Phone calls were made” line.) What am I missing here? Where is this the passive voice? > [@Dan Savage](#): > > Josh Duggar has issued an apology—in which he blames porn and uses the passive voice: > > > [@Josh Duggar](#): > > > > I have been the biggest hypocrite ever. While espousing faith and family values, I have secretly over the last several years been viewing pornography on the internet and this became a secret addiction and I became unfaithful to my wife. I am so ashamed of the double life that I have been living and am grieved for the hurt, pain and disgrace my sin has caused my wife and family, and most of all Jesus and all those who profess faith in Him. One cite: [Article by Dan Savage.](http://www.thestranger.com/blogs/slog/2015/08/20/22732267/about-josh-duggers-ashley-madison-account) The other article (I don’t remember where it was; maybe it was the Wonkette article) calls his use of passive voice “abhorrent”. But the above quote isn’t what I think “passive voice” is. Is it? ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_T](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Gary\_T](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_T)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2015, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-this-the-passive-voice/728412/2 "2015-08-21T05:24:53Z")
Not that I can see. ---
**Author:** ![Vaevictis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/f04885/32.png) [@Vaevictis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Vaevictis)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2015, 6:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-this-the-passive-voice/728412/3 "2015-08-21T06:04:43Z")
No passive voice in any of it. ---
**Author:** ![dofe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7ba0ec/32.png) [@dofe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dofe)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2015, 6:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-this-the-passive-voice/728412/4 "2015-08-21T06:28:35Z")
Note that he writes: “I became unfaithful to my wife.” – as though it was a condition that just happened. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2015, 6:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-this-the-passive-voice/728412/5 "2015-08-21T06:33:55Z")
Yeah, not passive voice, but sorta like it. Passive voice would have been something like “people in our relationship were viewing porn and later, unfaithfulness occurred” ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2015, 6:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-this-the-passive-voice/728412/6 "2015-08-21T06:42:41Z")
> [@dofe](#): > > Note that he writes: “I became unfaithful to my wife.” – as though it was a condition that just happened. I’m sure this is what those people meant when they referred to the “passive voice.” Of course, it isn’t passive, but there are ways of clouding agency in English without technically using passive constructions. The has long been a kind of mindless, mechanical stigma to the passive voice, often perpetuated by those who proffer simplistic maxims about “good writing.” That’s probably why the critics of Duggar just automatically used that label, albeit incorrectly. Their concern is valid; they just used the wrong term. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2015, 6:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-this-the-passive-voice/728412/7 "2015-08-21T06:48:10Z")
Mangetout: “People in our relationship were viewing porn” would be past continuous, “Unfaithfulness occurred” would be simple past. Passive voice for both clauses would be: “Porn was viewed by people in our relationship and later, unfaithfulness was practiced.” ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2015, 6:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-this-the-passive-voice/728412/8 "2015-08-21T06:48:11Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > Passive voice would have been something like “people in our relationship were viewing porn and later, unfaithfulness occurred” Technically this isn’t passive either, but in a very similar way, it semantically clouds agency. ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2015, 6:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-this-the-passive-voice/728412/9 "2015-08-21T06:55:09Z")
> [@Monty](#): > > Mangetout: “People in our relationship were viewing porn” would be past continuous, “Unfaithfulness occurred” would be simple past. This is true, but being _continuous_ or _simple past_ doesn’t preclude something from being passive. Passive is _voice_. Past is _tense_. Continuous is _aspect_ (not a tense). They are three different things that are not mutually exclusive. ---
**Author:** ![MichaelEmouse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/michaelemouse/32/101_2.png) [@MichaelEmouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MichaelEmouse)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2015, 7:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-this-the-passive-voice/728412/10 "2015-08-21T07:03:29Z")
So, “the passive voice is used by me” is the passive voice whereas “I use the active voice” is active, right? Guizot’s point about it being the wrong term but the right idea makes me wonder: What trick is Duggar using there? I think we can all see he’s trying to make it slide off of him as much as possible but I don’t know enough about semantics to offer a precise diagnosis. Also, what are the situations and uses for which the passive voice is a good tool, besides passing off the buck? ---
**Author:** ![CairoCarol](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cairocarol/32/3825_2.png) [@CairoCarol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CairoCarol)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2015, 7:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-this-the-passive-voice/728412/11 "2015-08-21T07:23:40Z")
Could it be the phrase “this became an addiction for me” that is bothering people? I mean, I guess he could have said, “I became addicted to porn”. But I don’t really see the problem/passive voice with the original construction. ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2015, 7:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-this-the-passive-voice/728412/12 "2015-08-21T07:30:49Z")
> [@MichaelEmouse](#): > > What trick is Duggar using there? I think we can all see he’s trying to make it slide off of him as much as possible but I don’t know enough about semantics to offer a precise diagnosis. Certain verbs, just by their intrinsic meaning, (by their semantics), don’t necessarily imbue their subjects with _agency_. The above mentioned _occur_, or _happen_, are like that. You can say: \*Mistakes were made.\*which is technically passive voice, or you can say:\*Mistakes happened.\*Which is technically active voice (not passive), but in either case, you don’t identify _the agent_ of the action–the person who committed the mistakes. > [@MichaelEmouse](#): > > Also, what are the situations and uses for which the passive voice is a good tool, besides passing off the buck? One situation is scientific writing, where the agent is not important:\*The mice were injected with 10 ml of such-and-such substance.\*It’s not important who injected the mice, and moreover, it’s obvious that it was just a technician, etc. Also, sometimes for discursive reasons passive voice can in fact just be simpler or more elegant, without obfuscating anything. (I’ll give an example later, when I get a moment, if you want.) ---
**Author:** ![UDS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecae2f/32.png) [@UDS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2015, 7:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-this-the-passive-voice/728412/13 "2015-08-21T07:32:02Z")
I’m also spotting “I have been the biggest hypocrite ever” as a distancing technique. It implies that this deplorable state of affairs prevailed at some possibly quite distant point in the past. (E.g. “I have been to Paris”, meaning I spent a weekend there 35 years ago.) I think if Duggar was facing up to himself he would be more likely to say something like “I _am_ a hypocrite\*” ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2015, 7:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-this-the-passive-voice/728412/14 "2015-08-21T07:32:50Z")
> [@guizot](#): > > This is true, but being _continuous_ or _simple past_ doesn’t preclude something from being passive. Passive is _voice_. Past is _tense_. Continuous is _aspect_ (not a tense). They are three different things that are not mutually exclusive. I know. The other poster offered an example, actually two examples, of something as passive voice. The sentence proffered does not contain passive voice. FYI: general usage in English is to consider past perfect, present perfect, future perfect continuous, etc. as being tenses. ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2015, 7:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-this-the-passive-voice/728412/15 "2015-08-21T07:52:47Z")
> [@Monty](#): > > FYI: general usage in English is to consider past perfect, present perfect, future perfect continuous, etc. as being tenses. Yes, I realize that, and it’s unfortunate, because I believe that that usage has contributed to the obsessive and disproportionate focus on tense in language instruction in American high schools and colleges–to the detrimental exclusion of other equally important aspects of language, particularly _function_, and the role of semantics in grammar. In my professional experience of language program evaluation, this is one of the more intractable problems that undermine language teaching, considering how much more there is to language proficiency than mastery of tense. ---
**Author:** ![MichaelEmouse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/michaelemouse/32/101_2.png) [@MichaelEmouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MichaelEmouse)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2015, 7:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-this-the-passive-voice/728412/16 "2015-08-21T07:55:35Z")
> [@guizot](#): > > Also, sometimes for discursive reasons passive voice can in fact just be simpler or more elegant, without obfuscating anything. (I’ll give an example later, when I get a moment, if you want.) I do. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2015, 8:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-this-the-passive-voice/728412/17 "2015-08-21T08:29:38Z")
> [@MichaelEmouse](#): > > I do. I think what you mean to say is: _Wanting [that] is done by me._ 😃 ---
**Author:** ![j666](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de0a6/32.png) [@j666](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/j666)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2015, 10:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-this-the-passive-voice/728412/18 "2015-08-21T10:17:12Z")
> [@MichaelEmouse](#): > > Also, what are the situations and uses for which the passive voice is a good tool, besides passing off the buck? To change the emphasis or when the actor is unknown or cannot be specified. “I saved her life when I stopped the car” implies I was the most important part of the event. “Her life was saved when the car was stopped” emphasizes that a life was saved. “The nascent labor movement was crushed during this period” - there were several forces working in concert which will be outlined in the rest of the paper. Some authors prefer using “we” rather than the passive voice when describing studies - “We injected the mice …”. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2015, 10:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-this-the-passive-voice/728412/19 "2015-08-21T10:34:59Z")
When used by a non-linguist, “the passive voice” means “I dislike this construction but am unable to articulate why”. They generally believe it to be ungrammatical and/or inherently dishonest, neither of which are true. Thinking the passive voice is usually inappropriate is fine. Thinking it’s inherently bad and must never be used is on par with believing split infinitives are ungrammatical. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2015, 10:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-this-the-passive-voice/728412/20 "2015-08-21T10:35:51Z")
For some time now, a linguist named Geoffrey Pullum has been complaining about the misuse of the term “passive”: [http://www.lel.ed.ac.uk/~gpullum/passive\_loathing.pdf](http://www.lel.ed.ac.uk/~gpullum/passive_loathing.pdf) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-this-the-passive-voice/728412.md?page=2)