E-Prime (short for English-Prime, sometimes spelled E ) is a form of 
the English language in which the verb to be does not appear in any 
of its forms. E-Prime therefore does not use the words "be", "is", 
"am", "are", "was", "were", "been" and "being". Neither does it use 
their contractions: "'m", "'s", "'re".

Since the English passive voice uses the verb "to be", E-Prime 
speakers must find alternate ways of phrasing ideas that other 
speakers might express as passive statements. Certain proponents of 
E-Prime advance that this feature of E-Prime encourages writers and 
speakers to clearly state actions' driving forces or agents.[1]

Some people use E-Prime as a mental discipline to filter speech and 
translate the speech of others.[2] For example, the sentence "the 
movie was good" could translate into E-Prime as "I liked the movie" 
or as "the movie made me laugh". The E-Prime versions communicate the 
speaker's experience rather than judgment, making it harder for the 
writer or reader to confuse opinion with fact.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-Prime>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-Prime






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