Agentless Passives

Passive sentences that do not mention the agent are called agentless passives.

All passive sentences are derived from active sentences. The so-called agentless passive-- a sentence without a "by-phrase"-- is interesting because it is derived from an active sentence without an explicit subject.

• A sentence like:
• The bank was robbed.

• Comes from an underlying active sentence something like:
• [SUBJECT] robbed the bank.

The agentless passive is used to avoid very general subjects such as people, someone, we, one, and impersonal you and them. The passive often sound more indirect or impersonal.

• People need calcium for strong bones.
• Calcium is needed for strong bones.

The agentless passive has a number of uses:

 1.   When the agent is unknown:

• EXAMPLES:
• ID photos are being taken today.
• They are taking ID photos today.
• The car was stolen (by somebody).

2.   When the agent is irrelevant or unimportant or obvious. For example, agentless passives are common in descriptions of scientific experiments where the emphasis is on what was done not on who did it.

• EXAMPLES:

• The mail is delivered at noon. (It is obvious that a mail carrier delivered the mail.)
• Measurements were made.
• Data was collected.

3.   When you want people to forget the agent. Since passive voice allows us to omit the agent or cause of the action, it can also be used when the writer’s objective is to avoid assigning (or taking) responsibility.

• EXAMPLES:

• The task was never completed.
• Killing civilians were not intended.
• Mistakes were made.
• Taxes will be increased.
• Benefits will be reduced.
• A serious error was made in the payroll.