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Basketball has not only become a popular sport to play , but it has also become a popular sport to watch.

I found the sentence above in a textbook. I'm wondering why passive voice is not used here? Is it acceptable if I say:

Basketball has not only become a popular sport to be played , but it has also become a popular sport to be watched.

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  • 1
    Writer’s choice.
    – Xanne
    Commented Oct 22, 2021 at 9:16
  • 1
    The thing to be done is ask yourself why you wouldn't just refer to the thing to do.
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Oct 22, 2021 at 11:04

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Because in your example you can convey the same meaning more succinctly with active voice. Normally, passive voice is used when there's a contextual reason for preferring it over its active counterpart. That means that unless you have such a contextual reason, active voice is the default, if you will.

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