Whenever I create a document in Microsoft Word, it complains about a lot of my sentences being in passive voice. But, when I read that sentence aloud, it sounds fine to me. I am not sure if it is just me and will a statement in passive voice sound strange to a native speaker?
So, my question is, is it considered bad form to use passive voice generally? Or in some specific cases like written communications only?
Edit: If it is ok to use passive voice, then why does MS-Word complain?
Answer
It's never bad form to use passive form. It's just that in speech, we tend to use a lot of this, but there's nothing wrong with using the passive form in writing, or in speech.
From the Passive Engineer:
Despite the admonitions of grammar checkers, the passive construction has a legitimate function. When you want to emphasize results, use the passive.
Note that it mentions grammar checkers, which I suppose is what you are getting.
Wikipedia states that:
Many language critics and language-usage manuals discourage use of the passive voice....This advice is not usually found in older guides, emerging only in the first half of the twentieth century
Also:
In 1926, in the authoritative A Dictionary of Modern English Usage (1926), Henry W. Fowler recommended against transforming active voice forms into passive voice forms, because doing so "sometimes leads to bad grammar, false idiom, or clumsiness
It's really just style, but nothing else to worry about.
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