Active vs.

Passive Voice

When a sentence is in the active voice, the subject of the sentence is the one doing the action
expressed by the verb. In the passive voice, the subject is the person or thing acted on or affected
by the verb's action. The passive voice is typically formed with a form of the verb be—such as is,
was, or has been—and the past participle of the verb, as in "The ball was thrown by Jerry."
Although sometimes criticized for being evasive, the passive voice can be useful when someone
wants to emphasize an action that has taken place or when the agent of an action is unknown, as
is often the case in news coverage.

Jerry threw a ball

People speak Spanish in Ecuador

Spanish is spoken in Ecuador.

We were warned that if we kept missing classes we would come back to the previous stage.

They buy flowers every day.

Flowers are bought every day.

He sold his house to Mr. Perez.

His house was sold to Mr. Perez.

I will write the book.

The book will be written by me.

The bosses have fired many employees this month.

Many employees have been fired this month.

They had finished the report before you asked for it.
The report had been finished

The rain is destroying the streets in the city.

The streets are being destroyed in the city

They were building the bridge before the storm started.

The bridge was being built ……..

I think, Picasso has painted the most beautiful paintings

I think, the most beautiful paintings have been painted by Picasso.

The active voice asserts that the person or thing represented by the grammatical subject performs
the action represented by the verb.

The passive voice makes the subject the person or thing acted on or affected by the action
represented by the verb.

Active voice: jerry knocked over the lamp.

Passive voice: The lamp was knocked over by Jerry.

He is wanted, she is missed, we have been operated

My father brought the newspaper.

The newspaper was brought by my father.

The teacher explains the passive voice.

The passive voice is explained by the teacher.

He will write the next book.

The next book will be written by him.

The Chinese have created the great wall

The great wall has been created by the Chinese.

My brother was taking an important exam.

An important exam was being taken by my brother

I have been chasing those counterfeiters for so long.

Those counterfeiters have been being chased for so long.

They had produced the movie before the actors finished their job.

The movie had been produced

The boss told me not come to work

I was told not to come to work.

Many consider the i-phone the best phone ever

The i-phone is considered

You build these buildings very fast

These buildings are built very fast.

Alexander Flemin discovered penicillin

Penicillin was discovered by flemin

I will send the package by fedex

The package will be sent by fedex

I think Picasso has painted the most beautiful paintings.

I think The most beautiful paintings have been painted by Picasso.

They had spread the news before the reporters arrived.

The news had been spread

they told me not to come to work tomorrow.

I was told not

They said “you don’t have to come to work tomorrow”

It was said

They are firing many people from the factory.

Many people are being fired from the factory.

The newspapers are not being given to my house

Is English spoken in Africa?

Have you ever been robbed?

What is usually eaten in your family meetings?

Both sentences describe the same action taking place—Jerry making contact with a lamp and
causing it to fall over—with the first sentence making Jerry the subject and the second making the
lamp the subject.

The passive voice is often distinguished by its use of a linking verb form (e.g., was, had been)
followed by another verb in its past participle form (e.g., "I have been given an opportunity").

Usefulness of Passive Voice

Passive voice often gets criticized as a weak and evasive form of expression. But it is useful for
those instances when you want to emphasize the fact of an action having taken place rather than
who performed the action. It is also helpful for instances when the doer of an action (also known
as the agent) is unknown.

Active voice: The kids have cleaned the kitchen.

Passive voice: The kitchen has been cleaned.

Active voice: We found an old car in the woods.

Passive voice: An old car was found in the woods.

Luis reads books every morning.

Books are read every morning by Luis.

My mom is watching a series.

A series is being watched by my mom.

They have developed a new product.

A new product has been developed

They told me don’t come to work.

I was told not come to work.

Active vs. Passive Voice

They didn’t finish their job.

Their job wasn’t finished.

Ecuadorians speak Spanish

Spanish is spoken by Ecuadorians.

Take a sentence like “I want ice cream now.” It’s clear and straightforward—you know
immediately that the subject, I, wants an object, ice cream. Now, recast this sentence, flipping it so
that the object is in the position of the subject: “Ice cream is wanted by me now.” It isn’t just
longer, but it’s also more detached, roundabout, and a little awkward, too.

Those two sentences are examples of the active voice and the passive voice. Certain kinds of
writing are best suited for the active voice, while the passive voice is most appropriate for other
kinds of writing. Understanding how, when, and why to use each is key to being an effective writer
and speaker.

What is active voice, what is passive voice, and what are their different functions?

In the active voice, the subject is performing an action:

The dog chases the ball.

Notice how the subject, dog, is performing the action, chase, on the target of the action, ball. This
is a simple, direct example of the active voice.

In the passive voice, the action’s target, ball, is positioned first as the focus of the sentence. The
sentence gets flipped, and the subject is now being acted upon by the verb. In other words, the
subject is passive:
They told me not to come to work.

I was told not to come to work.

Were you told about the meeting tomorrow?

They warned us that…..

We were warned

My wife gave me two pair of shoes

They were given by my wife

The ball is being chased by the dog.

The dog is chasing the ball.

My phone was broken by my brother.

My brother broke my phone

The package won’t be received by her.

She will not receive the package.

Active and passive are the two grammatical voices in English. Neither is inherently better than the
other, but each is suited to certain types of writing. There’s a reason why news anchors sound
detached from the stories they’re reporting: They often speak using the passive voice. There’s also
a reason why the authors of opinion pieces sound so sure of their positions: They usually write in
the active voice.
Although the idea of teachers telling their students to avoid the passive voice is repeated so
frequently that it feels like a trope, the truth is that the passive voice does have its applications.
We’ll get into those later. For now, let’s look at how to recognize the active voice and the passive
voice in your writing and in others’ work.

Active voice

As we’ve learned, in the active voice, the sentence’s subject performs the action. Here are two
examples of sentences in the active voice:

Shira likes birdwatching.

She loves twilight.

No matter what verb you use, structuring your sentence so the subject performs the verb is
writing in the active voice.

The active voice has a direct, clear tone. Use it when you want the reader to focus on the subject
of your sentence and the action it is doing rather than on the action’s target.

Passive voice

In the passive voice, the action’s target is the focus, and the verb acts upon the subject. Or, to put
it in the passive voice, the subject is acted upon by the verb. Every sentence in the passive voice
contains two verbs:

A conjugated form of “to be”

The main verb’s past participle

Take a look at the previous examples, now written in passive voice:

Birdwatching is liked by Shira.

Twilight is loved by her.

Notice how the targets of the action—also the direct objects of the sentences—are now the focus.
The sentences now contain a conjugated form of “to be” (is) and the main verb’s past participle
(liked and loved). Often, sentences in the passive voice are longer than sentences in the active
voice simply because they have to include additional words like prepositions. Take a look at this
sentence in the passive voice:

Summer break is [conjugated form of “to be”] loved [past participle of the main verb] by
[preposition] my friends.

However, sentences written in the passive voice don’t necessarily need a preposition. Take a look
at the example sentences below:

The check was paid.

He will be remembered. She will remember him

The Philippines are known for its marine biodiversity.

People know the Philippines for its marine biodiversity.

The passive voice has a subtler tone than the active voice has. Sometimes your writing needs this
tone, like when you want your reader to focus on the action being described or the action’s target
rather than on who or what is performing the action. This is why the passive voice is used in lab
reports—it conveys scientific objectivity by minimizing the focus on the doer of the action.

Active and passive voice usage

Although you may have been told that writing in the passive voice is “bad writing,” it’s actually
more nuanced than that. For most of the writing you do, like emails, blog posts, and many kinds of
essays, the active voice is a more effective way to communicate the ideas, themes, and facts
you’re expressing.

In certain kinds of writing, though, the passive voice is necessary. Think about how news reports
about crime and incidents are usually written and delivered:
A car was broken into on Elm Street last night.

Cash was stolen from the register.

In these kinds of reports, the passive voice is used to emphasize the action that occurred rather
than the individual or group who committed the action, often because the perpetrator isn’t known
or hasn’t yet been found guilty of the offense.

There are other kinds of writing where the action itself, rather than the doer of the action, is the
primary focus. These include scientific and, in some cases, historical reports. These use the passive
voice to keep the reader’s focus on what has happened or is happening. Here are a few examples:

The rats were placed into the maze.

The governor was inaugurated at the statehouse.

Notice how in both of these sentences, the doer of the action isn’t mentioned. That’s because it’s
either implied or irrelevant. In the first example, the scientist performing the experiment is the
one who placed the rats in the maze. In the second, those conducting the inauguration ceremony
aren’t relevant to what’s being expressed in the sentence.

How to change passive voice to active voice

After you finish your first draft, read it. You might even want to read it aloud and listen to how it
sounds. By reading and listening to your own work, you can catch awkward sentences and unclear
phrasing and mark them as points to revise in your next draft. You’ll also hear where you used the
active and passive voices and how they shift your work’s tone as a whole.

Let’s say you’ve detected a few instances of the passive voice in your argumentative essay:

More flexible scheduling options are deserved by students. Significant amounts of tuition are paid
to the university every year, and many feel the level of service being paid for by students is not
being received.
See how these sentences feel like they’re dancing around the topic at hand rather than addressing
it head-on? The writer isn’t making a particularly persuasive argument, but they can make their
writing far more impactful by changing it to the active voice.

Sentence-by-sentence, identify who or what is performing the action, and make that the subject
when you rewrite it. In the first sentence, make students the subject, since that’s who is
performing the action. The main verb in this sentence is deserve, and the target is more flexible
scheduling options, which will become the direct object in your new sentence. With these
identified, restructure the sentence so the subject is now directly performing the verb. In the
active voice, this sentence would read like this:

Students deserve more flexible scheduling options.

See how this version gets right to the point? It makes the writer sound more confident too, which
is a priority in argumentative writing. Let’s try changing the second sentence to the active voice,
which also allows us to condense:

Students pay a significant amount of tuition to the university every year, and many feel they aren’t
receiving the level of service they’re paying for.

As you can see from the compound sentence above, you can write any kind of sentence in the
active or passive voice as long as the sentence has a transitive verb. Whether it’s a simple or
complex sentence (or even a compound-complex sentence), you can dramatically alter your tone
by simply reworking its structure.

If you aren’t sure whether a sentence is active or passive based on how it sounds, use the rules we
outlined above to identify the two voices in your work. The biggest clue you have a passive voice
sentence on your hands will be a form of “to be” followed by a past participle (e.g., was requested
or will be missed). Not every passive voice sentence says who is performing the action, but if it
does, you’ll see a preposition next to it (e.g., by zombies or by my brother).

You can use either voice when you’re paraphrasing a longer work. Sometimes, such as in cases
where you’re paraphrasing a scientific article, you’ll need to use the passive voice in your
paraphrased version. In others, you might actually make the original clearer by paraphrasing in the
active voice.
Active and passive voice examples

Take a look at these examples of both the active and passive voices in action:

Active: Is Ajani visiting us today?

Passive: Will we be visited by Ajani today?

Did Marco pay his debts?

Were the debts payed by Marco?

As you see, questions can be written in either voice. Other kinds of sentences, like exclamatory
and imperative sentences, are often best written in the active voice:

Active: Please remove your shoes before entering my house.

Passive: Shoes should be removed before entering my house.

I need you to be heard

Active: Lock the door!

Passive: Let the door be locked!

See how with the first pair, the passive voice makes the request feel more like a suggestion? In the
second pair, the passive voice makes the message sound stilted and formal rather than an urgent
exclamation.

Now take a look at these two examples:

Active: I poured the solution into the beaker and heated it to 100℉.

Passive: The solution was poured into the beaker and heated to 100℉.

Active and passive voice FAQs

What is active voice, what is passive voice, and what’s the difference?

In the active voice, the sentence’s subject performs the action on the action’s target. In the passive
voice, the target of the action is the main focus, and the verb acts upon the subject. There are
numerous differences between the two grammatical voices, but the most important is that the
active voice is clearer and more direct, while the passive voice is subtler and can feel more
detached.

When should you use active vs. passive voice?

Use the active voice in any sentence that focuses on the doer of the action. Unless the majority of
your writing is scientific or reporting incidents involving unknown perpetrators, most of the
sentences you write should be in the active voice.

The passive voice is meant for sentences where you need to emphasize the target of an action or
the action itself rather than who or what is performing the verb.

How do you change passive voice to active?

To change the passive voice to the active voice, determine who is actually performing the action in
the sentence, then restructure the sentence so that the performer is the focus, clearly performing
the verb upon the sentence’s direct object.

Passive: Salsa dancing has always been loved by our community.

Active: Our community has always loved salsa dancing.

My mother cleans the house every Saturday.

The house is cleaned every Saturday.

My father is painting the house.

The house is being painted by my dad.

They will send the shoes by FedEx.

The shoes will be sent by FedEx.

In my work they have hired many new teachers.

Many new teachers have been hired in my work.

I know my mom will buy that for me.

I know That will be bought for me