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"He was overcome by a sudden surge of fear" or "A sudden surge of fear overcame him" - Which is more correct?

Is the latter one not idiomatic?

Ammamon
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    Why do you think one must be "more correct" than the other? – KillingTime Dec 03 '21 at 16:45
  • Surges are sudden, so just surge is enough. – Yosef Baskin Dec 03 '21 at 16:57
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    Have you tried searching this site for active vs. passive voice? You'll find discussions like the one here: https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/32311/is-using-passive-voice-bad-form – MarcInManhattan Dec 03 '21 at 17:07
  • Both sound like (rather formulaic) literary English rather than something a person would actually say in real life. As mentioned, neither is particularly good, but nor are they wrong. – Stuart F Dec 03 '21 at 18:56
  • The only difference is that "he" is the subject of the first sentence but "a sudden surge of fear" is the subject of the second. In practical terms the actual meaning is identical so it is just a stylistic choice. If the writer has used a lot of sentences of which "he" is the subject it could be useful to let the sudden surge of fear be the subject of this one. – BoldBen Dec 04 '21 at 09:48

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