Area IV · Structural & Systemic Constraints
E-Prime (English-Prime)
Banishing the verb “to be”
Write with no form of the verb “to be,” forcing vivid verbs and explicit agents.
Definition & mechanics
E-Prime forbids every form of the verb to be—is, am, are, was, were, be, been, being. Stripped of the copula and passive shortcuts, the writer must choose vivid, specific action verbs and name the agent of every action, which sharpens clarity and reduces unwarranted assertions of identity.
A curiosity
“The movie is boring” hides who is bored. E-Prime forces “The movie bored me,” which is honest: a claim about you, not a fact about the film.
Example
BeforeThe results were surprising, and it was clear that the model was superior to the baseline.
After (E-Prime)The results surprised us; the model clearly outperformed the baseline.
Copy-ready prompt
Copyable Prompt
Apply the concept of E-Prime (rewrite eliminating every form of the verb “to be”—is, am, are, was, were, be, been, being, and their contractions; replace with specific action verbs and explicit agents, removing all passive-voice constructions that rely on “to be”) to the provided text and rewrite in place. Apply the edits directly to the file as a clean, production-ready deliverable. Output ONLY the revised document text without embedding revision notes, changelogs, or meta-commentary in the file itself—put any explanations in your chat response only.