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“Why I do programming”

Because you failed at grammar? ;-) Engineers and programmers prefer passive voice, it’s endemic.

“Why I program”

Would be the active form.


No, “Why I do programming” is active voice.

An example of passive voice would be “Why programming is done by me.” And of course no one would write that.

You may prefer “Why I program”, which is indeed more concise and straightforward. But that's a stylistic preference, not a difference between active and passive voice.

For a similar example, consider “Why I do science”. Here there isn't a convenient way to shorten it, but it's still active voice.

In general, for any X, “Why I do X” is active voice, and “Why X is done by me” is passive voice.

He probably didn’t fail at grammar in Spanish, his native tongue. Writing “why I do programming” in an ESL evaluation may get a few points docked off but unlikely to be grounds for flunking.
Or “X is being deprecated” instead of (the more appropriate) “X is being decommissioned”

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