Decrease - active/passive voice

[Катя]

Hi,

In A the proportion of hemicelluloses initially was X% and after the treatment it decreased to Y% of the total of components.

I have doubts about "decreased to" - shouldn't it be in the passive voice?
Like "it was decreased" for example.
Same doubts I have about "stabilized":
..and the moisture content become stabilized.
And also "of the total of components" sounds a bit weird to me, like there is something missing.

Thanks!

 

[JustKate]

Decreased to is fine. You could use was decreased to, but only if you can attribute that decrease to an agent of some sort. For example, if someone was taking a particular drug, and the dosage was decreased, you could say that dosage was decreased to X micrograms (or whatever).

 

[entangledbank]

The active voice is fine here. Many English verbs can be used in both transitive and intransitive ways, where the intransitive corresponds to a passive or reflexive or a different verb stem in other languages:

The cook boiled the water. ~ The water boiled.
The pirates sank the boat. ~ The boat sank (in the storm).

In yours, something decreased the proportion and stabilized the moisture content, but it also sounds quite natural to say the proportion decreased and the moisture content stabilized.

 

[Катя]

Thanks a lot! It was so confusing!

 

[Катя]

Thank you!