what is passive voice
The passive voice is a grammatical construction. The noun or noun phrase that would be the object of an active sentence, such as Our troops defeated the enemy, appears as the subject of a sentence or clause in the passive voice. ☺
Passive voice is a grammatical construction where the subject of a sentence receives the action of the verb, rather than performing the action itself. In other words, the focus is placed on what is happening to the subject, rather than who is performing the action.
To identify passive voice, you can look for a form of the verb "to be" (such as "is," "are," "was," "were," "being," or "been") followed by the past participle of the main verb. Additionally, the agent (the one performing the action) may be introduced by the preposition "by," but it is not always included in passive voice sentences.
For example, let's consider the active voice sentence: "John painted the house." In the passive voice, this sentence would be reconstructed as: "The house was painted (by John)."
It's worth noting that while passive voice can be useful for various reasons, such as emphasizing the receiver of the action or de-emphasizing the doer, it can sometimes make a sentence less direct or less clear. Consequently, it is often recommended to use active voice whenever possible.
That sentence posted by ? is in the active voice.
The enemy was defeated by our troops is in the passive voice.
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/owlprint/539/