Passive vs. Active Voice: Rules, Uses and Examples

Every English sentence that contains a transitive verb can be written in one of two voices. In the active voice, the subject performs the action. In the passive voice, the subject receives the action. The choice between them is a decision about emphasis, clarity, and the kind of information the writer wants to foreground.

Active voice is the default in most English writing because it produces shorter, clearer sentences with a direct connection between the doer and the action. Passive voice has its own legitimate uses, and writers who understand those uses can deploy it deliberately. The problem arises when the passive appears by default, without purpose, making sentences longer and the agent of an action harder to identify.

How Active Voice Works

In an active voice sentence, the subject is the agent: the person or thing that performs the action named by the verb. The direct object receives that action. The structure moves from left to right in a way that mirrors the sequence of events.

Active sentences are direct and economical. The reader knows immediately who is responsible for the action.

How Passive Voice Works

In a passive voice sentence, the grammatical subject is the receiver of the action rather than the performer. The verb form changes to a combination of to be and the past participle. The original agent, if mentioned at all, is introduced by the preposition by and placed at the end of the sentence.

The core formula is: subject + form of to be + past participle + (by + agent).

The agent introduced by by is optional. In many passive sentences, it is omitted entirely because it is unknown, unimportant, or already understood from context.

Passive Voice Forms Across Tenses

The passive can be constructed in any tense by changing the form of to be while keeping the past participle constant.

Each passive form follows the same logic: the correct form of to be carries the tense information, and the past participle carries the meaning of the action.

When to Use Active Voice

Active voice is the stronger choice in most writing situations. It is clearer, more direct, and easier to read because the relationship between the doer and the action is immediately visible.

When the agent is important and known, active voice names the responsible party directly. This is essential in news writing, legal documents, and any context where accountability matters.

When the writing aims for energy and forward momentum, active voice keeps sentences moving. Instructions, narratives, and persuasive writing all benefit from the directness of the active.

When to Use Passive Voice

Passive voice is not a grammatical weakness. It is a deliberate structural choice with specific, legitimate purposes.

When the Agent Is Unknown

If the person or thing responsible for an action is genuinely not known, the passive allows the writer to report the action without inventing an agent.

When the Agent Is Unimportant or Obvious

If the agent is irrelevant to the point being made, or so obvious from context that naming it adds nothing, the passive focuses attention on the action and its receiver instead.

When the Receiver Is More Important Than the Agent

When the topic of the sentence is what receives the action rather than who performs it, the passive places that receiver in the subject position, where it naturally receives emphasis.

In Formal and Scientific Writing

Academic and scientific writing conventionally uses the passive to maintain an objective, impersonal tone and to keep focus on processes and findings rather than on the researchers themselves.

To Avoid Assigning Blame or Responsibility

In diplomatic, institutional, or sensitive contexts, the passive can describe an outcome without directly attributing it to anyone.

This use of the passive deserves critical awareness. In political and institutional writing, it is frequently employed to obscure responsibility rather than simply to deprioritize it. Recognising this pattern is as important as knowing how to produce it.

Transforming Between Active and Passive

To convert active to passive: move the object to the subject position, change the verb to the appropriate be + past participle form, and optionally add the original subject as a by phrase.

To convert passive to active: move the by phrase agent to the subject position, restore the verb to its active form, and move the original passive subject to the object position.

Sentences with intransitive verbs, verbs that take no direct object, cannot be made passive. Only transitive verbs participate in the active-passive transformation.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Mistake 1: Using the Passive Without a Clear Reason

The passive used as a default, without a deliberate purpose, produces writing that is unnecessarily long and evasive. If no clear reason exists for the passive, the active voice is almost always better.

Mistake 2: Forming the Passive with the Wrong Auxiliary

The passive requires a form of to be combined with the past participle. Using to have instead, or omitting the auxiliary entirely, produces an incorrect passive structure.

Mistake 3: Using the Past Tense Form Instead of the Past Participle

With irregular verbs, the past tense and past participle are often different. Using the past tense where the past participle is needed produces an incorrect passive.

Mistake 4: Omitting the Agent When It Matters

Omitting the agent is appropriate when the agent is unknown or unimportant. When the agent is important and relevant, omitting it creates confusion or avoids accountability where it should be assigned.

Mistake 5: Creating a Double Passive

A double passive occurs when two passive constructions are stacked in ways that produce an ungrammatical or illogical structure. It appears most often with verbs like order, attempt, or expect followed by an infinitive.

Mistake 6: Confusing the Passive with the Stative Use of To Be

Not every sentence containing to be followed by a past participle is a passive construction. Some are stative sentences describing a state or condition rather than an action. Stative constructions cannot be transformed into active sentences.

Practice Exercises

Exercise 1: Identify the Voice

Identify whether each sentence is active or passive. If it is passive, state whether the agent is included or omitted.

1. The architect designed the building in 1987.
2. The annual report has been submitted to the board.
3. Three candidates were shortlisted for the position.
4. The government introduced new tax regulations last spring.
5. The samples were collected and stored at low temperature.

Exercise 2: Transform the Sentence

Rewrite each active sentence in the passive voice. Include the agent where given; omit it where no agent is stated.

1. A team of engineers repaired the bridge overnight.
2. The company will announce the results next Friday.
3. Someone left the lights on in the conference room.
4. The university has awarded her a scholarship.
5. The manager must review all applications before the end of the week.

Exercise 3: Choose the Better Voice

Each pair of sentences contains one active and one passive version. Choose the version that is more appropriate for the context given, and explain your choice in one sentence.

1. Context: A news report about a factory fire. a. Workers extinguished the fire after several hours. b. The fire was extinguished after several hours by workers.
2. Context: A scientific report on a laboratory procedure. a. We collected the data over a six-month period. b. The data was collected over a six-month period.
3. Context: A company memo about a cancelled event. a. Management has cancelled the annual conference this year. b. The annual conference has been cancelled this year.
4. Context: An instruction manual explaining a process. a. Press the button to begin the calibration sequence. b. The button is pressed to begin the calibration sequence.
5. Context: A historical account of a discovery. a. Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin in 1928. b. Penicillin was discovered by Alexander Fleming in 1928.

Summary

Active voice is the default for a reason: it is direct, economical, and easy to follow. Passive voice earns its place when the receiver matters more than the agent, when the agent is unknown, or when an impersonal tone is required by convention. The skill at B2 level and beyond is reading each sentence carefully enough to know which voice serves it best.