Active vs Passive Voice: How to Spot and Fix It

What passive voice is

In an active sentence the subject does the action: "The seagull caught the fish." In a passive sentence the subject receives it: "The fish was caught by the seagull," an example from the UNC Writing Center. The Waterloo Writing and Communication Centre defines the passive the same way, as a sentence whose subject receives the action, and adds that the doer may or may not be named later in the sentence.

The UNC Writing Center gives the recipe as a form of "to be" plus a past participle. The past participle usually ends in -ed, but not always: caught, taken, written and made are all past participles. The federal plain language guide on digital.gov describes the same two parts. Forms of "to be" to look for:

• is, are, was, were, be, been, being, could be, have been

A form of "to be" alone does not make a sentence passive. "The report is late" has no past participle, and "She was writing" uses the -ing form. Both are active.

Two ways to spot it

Look for the pattern. Find each form of "to be" and check whether a past participle follows it, sometimes with a word in between: "was quickly approved," "has been sent," "will be reviewed." Then ask the questions UNC suggests: is there an action, who does it, and is that actor named?

Try the zombies test. The Waterloo centre teaches a shortcut: add "by zombies" after the verb. If the sentence still makes grammatical sense, it is passive.

• "The trip was taken [by zombies]." Makes sense, so it is passive.
• "Mandy taught the class [by zombies]." Does not make sense, so it is active.

The test works best on short sentences. On a long one, apply it to each clause.

Why plain language asks for active voice

The federal plain language guide, now published on digital.gov, says active voice makes it clear who should do what. It calls passive voice one of the biggest problems with government writing, because it hides who is responsible. Its example is a rule written as "must be included" with no one named: the reader cannot tell who has to include it. The active version, "You must include," answers that in the first two words.

The guide also warns against a common mix-up: passive voice is not the same as past tense. Voice is about who acts. Tense is about when. "The company polluted the lake" is past tense and active.

The same guidance sits behind the other plain language rules, such as short sentences and addressing the reader as "you." Active sentences are often shorter too, as the table below shows.

Ten sentences, passive to active

The first three pairs are the examples from the federal guide. Across all ten, the passive versions use 82 words and the active ones 66, about 20 percent fewer. Most of the saving comes from dropping "by" phrases and helper verbs like "be," "been" and "was." Not every rewrite is shorter: "Mistakes were made" grows by a word, because the active version has to name a doer. Count your own before and after with the Word Counter, or paste both versions into Text Compare to see every changed word side by side.

Notice what the rewrites had to add. "Mistakes were made" and "It has been decided" name nobody, so the active version needs a doer: "our team," "the director." That is the point of the exercise. If you cannot say who did it, the sentence was hiding something the reader may need.

When passive voice is fine

UNC states that using the passive is not a grammatical error, and both writing centers list cases where it is the better choice:

• The doer is unknown. UNC's example: over 120 contaminants "have been dumped" into a river, when nobody knows who dumped them.
• The doer is unimportant or obvious. Waterloo's example is a book's first edition being published in 1900. The year matters, the printer does not.
• The thing acted on is the topic. UNC's example: "One hundred votes are required to pass the bill" keeps the focus on the votes.
• Your field expects it. UNC notes that some instructors want the passive in the methods section of a lab report. Waterloo also points to disciplinary conventions.
• The law is the actor. The federal guide allows the passive when one action follows another as a matter of law and the law itself is the only actor.

Waterloo adds a warning worth keeping: because the passive can hide who is responsible, question it whenever you use it. The rule of thumb is simple. Write active by default, and choose the passive on purpose.

A worked paragraph

Here is a notice written almost entirely in the passive:

"Applications must be submitted by March 1. Late applications will not be accepted. Once your file has been reviewed, a decision will be sent by email."

There are four passive verbs: must be submitted, will not be accepted, has been reviewed, will be sent. The reader learns the deadline but not who reviews, who decides or who sends. Rewritten with the reader as "you" and the office as "we":

"Submit your application by March 1. We do not accept late applications. After we review your file, we will email you our decision."

The active version names both sides, turns the first sentence into a direct instruction, and is a little shorter. Nothing in it is less formal than the original; it is only clearer about who does what.

An editing routine

• Search your draft for "was," "were," "been" and "be," and check each hit for a past participle.
• For each passive sentence, ask who does the action. If you know, make that the subject.
• If the answer is "nobody knows" or "it does not matter," keep the passive.
• Address the reader directly where an instruction is meant for them: "You must sign," not "The form must be signed."
• Run the result through the Readability Checker, which flags long sentences and grade levels; many rewrites also make sentences shorter.

Headlines follow their own rules on top of these. If you are editing titles as well as body text, see title case rules for which words to capitalize.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

• digital.gov federal plain language guide, Writing for understanding (use active voice because it makes clear who should do what, passive is one of the biggest problems with government writing, the three before/after examples, forms of to be plus a past participle, do not confuse passive with past tense, passive may be appropriate when the law is the actor)
• UNC Writing Center: Passive voice (form of to be plus past participle, the seagull example, not a grammatical error, emphasizing the object, unknown actor, actor not needed, lab reports)
• University of Waterloo Writing and Communication Centre: Active and passive voice (the subject receives the action, the by zombies test with its examples, performer unknown, irrelevant or less important, disciplinary conventions)

Written by Tobias. Updated November 2, 2026.