Sharing about English Lesson

It is said that children, once they�ve acquired the passive construction, soon discover its usefulness when they�ve done something wrong and wish to avoid taking responsibility for it.

In an active sentence, the subject (underlined) is the agent or doer of the action: I made mistakes. 

In a passive sentence, the subject (underlined) is the patient or undergoer of the action: Mistakes were made.  Note that the passive construction allows the speaker to avoid mentioning the agent.  However, the agent may be mentioned using a so-called �agent by-phrase� (underlined): Mistakes were made by me.

This comic strip is doubly funny because Zo?�s utterance sounds very adult.  If it sounds familiar, it�s probably because we associate it primarily with bungling politicians, CEOs, bankers and celebrities who�ve been forced to admit their mistakes publicly!

Edit: A few days after this post, the exact phrase was used by a �top banker� in an interview with the UK�s Sunday Telegraph.  One wonders why he didn�t say, �We made mistakes�!