definition of passive voice
The passive voice is a type of grammatical voice in which the subject is acted upon by the verb. In passive-voice sentences, the subject is the receiver of the action (i.e., what would be the direct object in an active-voice sentence). Passive-voice verbs are always preceded by the auxiliary verb be and are in their past participle forms. While the receiver of the action comes before the verb, the person or thing performing the action (known as the agent) comes after the verb and is preceded by the preposition by to form a prepositional phrase.