Can a passive voice sentence be complete without the use of "by" e.g. my pencil is stolen? General Eg - The car was fixed by me. His hands are washed by him.

Yes,a passive sentence can be completed without the use of "by" Passive voice is used when the focus is on the action.no matter, who or what is performing the action. e.g. my pencil is stolen? In the example above, the focus is on the fact that 'pencil was stolen' I do not know, however, who did it. Sometimes a statement in passive is more polite than active voice, as the following example shows: Example: A mistake was made. In this case, I focus on the fact that a mistake was made, but I do not blame anyone (e.g. You have made a mistake.). LOOK AT THE OTHER EXAMPLES---- Subject Verb Object 1 Object 2 Active: Rita wrote a letter to me. Passive: A letter was written to me by Rita. Passive: I was written a letter by Rita. As you can see in the examples, adding 'by Rita' does not sound very elegant. That’s why it is usually dropped. read less

Many English passive sentences do not contain “BY” + Agent after the verb. In fact, it has been estimated that 80% of passive verbs don't include the agent, so a basic rule would be to omit wherever possible. There are cases where its use would be regarded as wrong or, at best, uncomfortable: My wallet was stolen by someone. Here the use adds no information other than the fact that the thief was human. It is completely unnecessary and sounds wrong. The same is true of examples where the subject is too obvious (I was born by my mother). Look at the below example, it is correct but very limited: Hamlet was written by Shakespeare. This sentence is correct, but the second other information is put into the sentence, it starts to sound stilted. If the date or reason were added, then the agent would probably be best omitted. In the example given, it is necessary because 'Hamlet was written.' makes little sense as a stand-alone sentence. Many car accidents are caused by alcohol. Here the agent is necessary as it adds something to the sentence and there would be no meaning without it. In cases like this, where the agent is essential to create the meaning, it must be included. Where it adds little or nothing, it is better to leave it out. read less