Ookla The Mok <ooklathemok@mac.com> wrote:

OK, an explanation here. "They were all crouching" is not passive voice. 
"They were all hit by a meteor" is passive voice. If there's no "by," 
it's not passive voice--that's the flag to watch for. 

Actually, that's not quite right. "They were all hit" is still passive
voice. You don't need a "by" unless you feel the need to indicate the
source of the action. Syntactically, what makes it passive is that you
have a "was" (or "were" in the plural) followed by some *other* verb in
what I think is called the "participle" form -- the form you use along
with "have" to show that the action's already been completed.

ACTIVE: I gave him the book.
PASSIVE: He was given the book.

"They were all 
crouching" is what's called past progressive tense. It's very common in 
English. Past tense it usually used to indicate one-time actions, not 
continual actions. If several people are standing there and then 
suddenly crouch down, you should say "They all crouched (down)." But if 
you look over a wall and see several people already crouching there 
hiding, it's appropriate to say "They were all crouching."

Yeah, and "was" can also appear with a descriptive adjective and/or
noun. "They were all visible" or "They were all easy targets." The point
of this is that while passive voice can and probably should almost
always... er, that is, authors can and probably should almost always
avoid the passive voice ^_^, these other uses of "was" are perfectly
fine if used sparingly. Too many of them, of course, can make narration
seem dull and static.


Gary Kleppe (challenging all comers at Martial Arts Pedantry!)
http://www.akane.org/gary/comics.html

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