E-Prime

Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. E-Prime (short for English-Prime) is a modified form of the English language which lacks the concepts and forms of the verb to be: be, is, am, are, was, were, been and being (and their equivalent contractions 'm, 's, and 're). Statements in E-Prime thus seldom contain the passive voice, which in turn may impel writers or speakers to envisage things differently...
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Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. E-Prime (short for English-Prime) is a modified form of the English language which lacks the concepts and forms of the verb to be: be, is, am, are, was, were, been and being (and their equivalent contractions 'm, 's, and 're). Statements in E-Prime thus seldom contain the passive voice, which in turn may impel writers or speakers to envisage things differently than they might otherwise (compare the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis). By eliminating most uses of the passive voice, E-Prime encourages writers and speakers to make explicit the agent of a statement, possibly making the written text easier to read and understand. Some people use E-Prime as a mental discipline to filter speech and translate the speech of others. For example, the sentence the movie was good, translated into E-Prime, could become I liked the movie. The translation communicates subjective experience rather than judgment. In this example, using E-Prime makes it harder for the writer or reader to confuse a statement of opinion with a statement of fact.