Are you plagued by passive voice phobia? Have you been told that the passive voice must never be used? As an antidote, here are some cases where the passive voice is the best choice. Remember them and don’t let yourself be intimidated!

There is no known or definite actor

If it isn’t clear who or what performed the action, you can use a subject such as “something,” “people,” or (as in this sentence) the impersonal “you.” If you’re legally minded, you can say “person or persons unknown.” But leaving the actor out altogether is sometimes the strongest choice. If you work at a help desk and customers have been giving you a rough time, you can yell (preferably while off the phone), “I’ve been abused and insulted enough!” It’s not any particular person you’re blowing up about, but the accumulated abuse.

A negative construction means there is no actor

“His accomplishments will never be forgotten.” How would you turn that into the active voice? There isn’t anyone doing the forgetting. Stores advertise that “We will not be undersold!” There isn’t anyone underselling, according to the ad. “No one will undersell us” sounds stiff and weak by comparison.

The Who sang, “Then I’ll get on my knees and pray we don’t get fooled again.” If their prayer is successful, neither the new boss nor the old boss will fool them.

The object is more important than the actor

If you come home to find the front door off its hinges and your possessions in disarray, you’d run to the police and say “My house was broken into!” That ends a sentence with a preposition, for bonus points. You don’t know who broke in. You want the burglar caught, of course, but it was probably a total stranger. What’s important just then is what happened, more than who did it.

“Joan of Arc was burned at the stake.” No one cares who the executioner was. The important historical fact is what happened to her.

“My story was rejected for the twelfth time!” It’s better not to think about the names of all the editors who turned you down. Maybe it will be accepted next time, by an editor yet unknown.

Passive-voice constructions turn up a lot in academic and technical writing. “The computer was shut down at 8:42.” “The test substance was dissolved in 100 ml of water.” It doesn’t matter who shut down the computer or dissolved the stuff.

You’re using an idiomatic expression

Some idioms use the passive voice, and straightening them out would make them ridiculous. “Well, I’ll be damned!” Saying “Well, a deity will damn me!” would entirely miss the point. At a club meeting, the minutes might note that “the motion was tabled.” It’s possible to say “The membership tabled the motion” or “The people voting tabled the motion,” but it’s awkward compared to the passive voice construction.

You should choose the active voice by default. When you use the passive voice, think about whether you could rephrase the sentence more effectively without it. But don’t pay any attention to the linguistic purists who claim the passive voice must be avoided at all costs. They’ve just been brainwashed.