Active vs. passive voice: how to spot it and when to switch
Passive voice is a grammatical structure, not a mistake. Learn exactly what makes a sentence passive, how to spot one fast, and why the active version usually reads better.
“Avoid the passive voice” is one of the most repeated pieces of writing advice, and one of the most misunderstood. Many people use “passive” to mean any sentence that feels weak or vague. In grammar, the term has a precise meaning. Once you know it, you can spot passives quickly and decide, case by case, whether to keep them.
What voice is
Voice describes the relationship between the subject of a sentence and the action of its verb.
In the active voice, the subject performs the action:
- The chef tasted the soup.
- Our team fixed the bug.
In the passive voice, the subject receives the action. The thing that was acted on moves into the subject position:
- The soup was tasted by the chef.
- The bug was fixed by our team.
Three things happen when you turn an active sentence into a passive one:
- The object becomes the subject. “The soup” was the object of “tasted”. In the passive, it moves to the front and becomes the subject.
- The verb becomes a form of “be” plus a past participle. “Tasted” becomes “was tasted”. The form of “be” carries the tense: is tasted, was tasted, will be tasted, has been tasted, is being tasted.
- The original subject moves into an optional “by” phrase, or disappears. “By the chef” can stay, or you can drop it: “The soup was tasted.” The sentence is still complete.
That third point explains much of the passive’s appeal, and much of its danger. A passive sentence can hide who did the action.
“Get” passives
Informal English also forms passives with “get” instead of “be”: “He got fired.” “The package got lost.” These work the same way. The subject receives the action, and the doer is optional.
What passive voice is not
Passive voice is not the same as:
- Past tense. “The chef tasted the soup” is past tense and active.
- Any use of “to be”. “The soup is hot” uses “is”, but “hot” is an adjective, not a past participle. Nothing is being done to the soup.
- Weak or vague writing in general. “There are many factors that contribute to delays” is wordy, but it is not passive.
- The progressive. “The chef is tasting the soup” uses “is” plus an -ing form. That is active.
Some sentences are genuinely ambiguous. “The door was closed” can describe an action (someone closed it at noon) or a state (it was shut when we arrived). Context decides.
How to spot a passive
Look for a form of “be” or “get” followed by a past participle. Past participles of regular verbs end in -ed (approved, delayed). Irregular ones take many shapes (written, taken, made, sent, built).
Then ask: is someone or something doing this action to the subject? If yes, it is passive.
A popular trick is the “by zombies” test. If you can add “by zombies” after the verb and the sentence still makes grammatical sense, it is passive.
- “The forms were signed by zombies.” Works, so it is passive.
- “The forms are on the desk by zombies.” Nonsense, so it is not.
The test is a memory aid, not a rule, but it catches most cases.
The Op-Ed Insight passive voice finder uses a similar pattern: a form of “be” or “get”, optionally followed by an adverb or “not”, then a past participle. That pattern is a heuristic. It misses some passives, such as “was quickly and quietly removed”, where several words separate the two parts, and it flags some adjectives that look like participles. “She was tired” and “I am interested” will usually be flagged, even though nobody is doing anything to her or to you. Treat every highlight as a question.
Why active voice is usually clearer
Active sentences follow the order readers expect: who did what. The actor comes first, then the action, then the thing acted on. Passive sentences reverse that order, and the reader has to rebuild it.
Before: The new safety rules were approved by the city council on Tuesday.
After: The city council passed the new safety rules on Tuesday.
Active sentences are also usually shorter. The passive needs a helping verb and, if the actor stays, a “by” phrase. Two or three extra words per sentence add up across a page.
Before: Your application has been received and will be reviewed by our hiring team within ten days.
After: We received your application. Our hiring team will review it within ten days.
The most important reason is accountability. Agentless passives let writers avoid saying who acted.
Before: Mistakes were made in the processing of your refund.
After: We made mistakes when we processed your refund.
The Before version is grammatically fine, and it tells the customer nothing about who is responsible. The After version takes ownership. Readers notice the difference.
More examples
Instructions read better in the active voice, often in the imperative, where “you” is understood:
Before: The lid should be removed before the food is heated.
After: Take the lid off before you heat the food.
Reports often stack passives until no one seems to be doing anything:
Before: It was decided that the launch would be delayed until the issues identified in testing were resolved.
After: We decided to delay the launch until we fix the issues that testing found.
Feedback on student work often uses passives to soften criticism, at the cost of clarity:
Before: The argument is not supported by enough evidence, and the conclusion is not clearly stated.
After: Your argument needs more evidence, and your conclusion needs to be clearer.
Sometimes the actor is long, and putting it in a “by” phrase buries it:
Before: The budget was approved by a committee made up of three department heads and two outside advisers.
After: Three department heads and two outside advisers approved the budget.
How to convert passive to active
- Find the actor. Look for a “by” phrase. If there is none, ask who did it.
- Make the actor the subject.
- Change the verb back to a simple form: “was approved” becomes “approved”.
- Put the old subject after the verb as the object.
If you cannot name the actor, or naming one adds nothing, the passive may be the right choice. That is not a failure. Passive voice has real jobs, which the guide on when to use passive voice covers.
A reasonable goal
There is no correct percentage of passive sentences. Scientific methods sections may use many. A sales email might use none. A practical approach is to check each passive and ask one question: would the reader be better served by knowing who acted? When the answer is yes, switch to active. When it is no, keep the passive and move on.
Try it on your own text
was made marks a likely passive. It is a heuristic: check each one.