How passive voice is detected
A passive construction is a form of to be (or to get) followed by a past participle: “was written”, “are being reviewed”, “has been made”, “got fired”. The checker looks for any form of be or get (including contractions like “it’s” and “they’re”) optionally followed by an adverb such as “not” or “already”, and then a past participle.
Regular participles end in -ed; irregular ones (written, made, built, taken, seen, chosen…) come from a list of about 200 verbs. Constructions with a “by” agent are flagged with higher confidence: “was approved by the board” is almost always passive.
To avoid false alarms, common adjectives that look like participles in “I am tired”, “she was interested” and “we are based in Leeds” are skipped, as are “used to” and “supposed to”.
When passive voice is the right choice
Passive voice isn’t wrong. It is the natural choice when:
- the actor is unknown: “The bike was stolen overnight”;
- the actor is obvious or unimportant: “The suspect was arrested”;
- the object is the topic: “Penicillin was discovered in 1928”;
- in some scientific methods sections, by convention.
It becomes a problem when it hides responsibility (“mistakes were made”) or adds length. Rewrite by asking who did it? and making that the subject.
Worked example
Here is what the Passive Voice Checker returns for its built-in example. Click Try an example in the tool above to load it, then change it as you like.
In order to succeed, the report was written by the team in a timely manner. It is important to note that the results were very, very good.
Basically, at the end of the day, we really need to think outside the box and leverage our synergy. Their is a lot of work to do, and the the deadline is close.
The chairman said that you guys should of known better. Its a fact that the data was analysed carefully and the color of the charts was chosen for clarity.| Found | Type | Suggestion |
|---|---|---|
| “was written” | Passive voice | — |
| “was analysed” | Passive voice | — |
| “was chosen” | Passive voice | — |
Questions
What is passive voice?
A sentence where the subject receives the action: “The cake was eaten (by Sam).” In active voice the subject does the action: “Sam ate the cake.”
Is the detection always right?
It is a pattern-based check, so a few adjectives after “is” or “was” can be flagged. Each highlight is a prompt to look, not a verdict.
How much passive voice is acceptable?
Many style guides suggest keeping it under about 10% of sentences in general writing. Scientific writing often uses more.
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