{"id":251,"date":"2024-02-12T16:32:41","date_gmt":"2024-02-12T21:32:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/grammarbasics\/?post_type=chapter&p=251"},"modified":"2026-01-26T16:28:03","modified_gmt":"2026-01-26T21:28:03","slug":"passive-voice","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/grammarbasics\/chapter\/passive-voice\/","title":{"raw":"Passive Voice","rendered":"Passive Voice"},"content":{"raw":"
A small elementary school is run by my brother, and the school is attended by about 200 students. Many subjects are learned, including math and English. At recess, games are played, and some fun conversations are had by students. When the bell rings at noon, lunch is eaten and kindergarten kids are taken home by their parents.<\/em><\/div>\r\n \r\n\r\nI've started this chapter with a short description of my brother's job as a school principal to illustrate a common stylistic issue in writing. Perhaps, as you read the text in the box above, you found it awkward or confusing. For example, you might wonder who plays games at recess? The passage does not answer this question.\r\n\r\nThe reason the passage is difficult (or even irritating) to read has to do with the way I've built the sentences. These sentences employ something called the passive voice<\/strong>.\r\n

What is 'Voice'?<\/h3>\r\nWhen we talk about voice, we're talking about verbs (actions) <\/strong>-- who is doing them, and who is receiving them (ie., who are they happening to<\/em>). We're going to discuss two voices: active and passive.\r\n
Active Voice<\/h5>\r\nIn the\u00a0active voice<\/strong>, the subject of the sentence does<\/span>\u00a0the action.\r\n

Marie throws the ball very hard.<\/em><\/p>\r\nThrows<\/em> is the action in the sentence, and the subject -- Marie --<\/em> is the one who does it.\r\n\r\nMost sentences in English follow this pattern. It tends to be clearer and more efficient.\r\n\r\n \r\n

Passive Voice<\/h5>\r\nIn the passive voice, the subject of the sentence\u00a0receives<\/span> the action (ie., the action happens to the subject).\r\n

The ball was thrown very hard by Marie.<\/em><\/p>\r\n

The ball was thrown very hard.<\/em><\/p>\r\nThis time the action is captured with the verb was<\/em> thrown<\/em>, and the subject -- ball<\/em>\u00a0--<\/em> is the thing the action happens to (the receiver<\/em> of the action). We don't find out who did the action until the end of the sentence, if at all.\r\n\r\n \r\n

Active Voice is Better -- Usually<\/h5>\r\nGenerally speaking, the active voice is preferred for a few reasons, which I'll demonstrate here.\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\nReason 1: It's More Efficient<\/strong>\r\n\r\nWhen we write, we want to communicate clearly and efficiently -- no wasted words. Active voice produces shorter, more efficient sentences, as we can see by comparing the two sentences below:\r\n\r\n \r\n

ACTIVE:\u00a0 \u00a0Marie throws the ball very hard.<\/em><\/p>\r\n

PASSIVE:\u00a0\u00a0The ball is thrown<\/span> very bard by<\/span> Marie.<\/em><\/p>\r\n \r\n\r\nNotice the underlined portions: I have to change the verb in passive voice -- a helping verb is needed now -- and I also have to add a preposition by\u00a0<\/em>in order to explain who did the action. Those extra words make the sentence longer than it needs to be.\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\nReason 2: It's Clearer<\/strong>\r\n\r\nGenerally speaking, readers like to understand \"who is doing what.\" Passive voice makes that harder to understand because in the passive voice, you don't need to mention the person doing the action.\r\n\r\nRemember that a sentence must have a subject and a verb in it. In the active voice, the subject is the person\/thing doing the action, so we can't leave it out. I can't walk up to someone and say, \"Slurped her soup.\" That's not a sentence; there's no subject.\r\n\r\nBut in the passive voice, the subject is the person\/thing who receives the action. The person\/thing who\u00a0does<\/em> the action is just extra information.\r\n\r\nSo while I can't write \"Slurped her soup,\" I can say, \"Her soup was slurped.\" That's a sentence:\u00a0soup\u00a0<\/em>is the subject and\u00a0was slurped<\/em> is the verb.\r\n\r\nJust because it's grammatically correct, though, doesn't mean it's clear. Do we know who slurped the soup? No, we don't. Passive voice allows me to leave that part out.\r\n\r\nSo generally speaking, the active voice makes things easier on readers because it clarifies \"who is doing what.\"\r\n\r\n \r\n

Identifying Passive Voice<\/h3>\r\nFinding passive voice in your own writing is really easy if you follow a trick invented by Dr. Rebecca Johnson, a professor at US Marine Corps University. It's called\u00a0the zombie test.<\/em><\/strong>\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n\"\"\r\n\r\nAll you have to do to check for passive voice is to find the main action verb in your sentence and insert the phrase \"by zombies\" after it. If the sentence still sounds like a sentence, then you're using passive voice. Let me show you an example.\r\n

All the blankets on my bed were washed.<\/em><\/p>\r\nOkay, so I found the action verb; it's washed<\/em>. Now I'm going to add the phrase \"by zombies\" after the verb, to get this:\r\n

All the blankets on my bed were washed by zombies.<\/em><\/p>\r\nRead the sentence out loud. It's a pretty strange image, zombies doing laundry, but it sounds like a sentence to me. That means the sentence is in passive voice.\r\n\r\nNow let's take a look at another example to see what it will sound like if the sentence is written in active voice.\r\n

My puppy ate all his food.<\/em><\/p>\r\nOnce again I'll find the action verb and place the phrase \"by zombies\" afterward, to get this:\r\n

My puppy ate by zombies all his food.<\/em><\/p>\r\nRead that sentence out loud, and I think you'll find that it sounds \"wrong.\" That means the sentence is in active voice.\r\n\r\n \r\n

Another Method for Identifying Voice<\/h5>\r\nIf you don't want to use the Zombie Test, you can identify passive voice with a simple process.\r\n
    \r\n \t
  1. Locate the main verb in the sentence and then look to the left of the verb (ie., the words in the sentence that come before the verb).\r\n
      \r\n \t
    • If you see the person\/thing that does<\/em><\/span> the action, the sentence is in active voice.<\/li>\r\n \t
    • If you see the person\/thing that\u00a0receives<\/em><\/span> the action, then the sentence is in passive voice.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n \r\n
      \r\n

      PRACTICE: Active or Passive?<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/header>\r\n

      \r\n\r\n[h5p id=\"18\"]\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n \r\n

      Passive Voice Isn't Necessarily Bad<\/h3>\r\nIt's not a grammatical error. We need passive voice in certain circumstances; as a writer, you just want to make sure you're using it in situations where it's beneficial. Here are a few of those situations.\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\nWhen you're not sure who did the action<\/strong>\r\n\r\nIf you don't know who did something, you can't really name them, so you might use passive voice.\r\n

      A birthday card was left on my desk.<\/em><\/p>\r\n \r\n\r\nWhen it doesn't matter who the actor is, or it would be awkward to name them<\/strong>\r\n\r\nSometimes naming the actor(s) would make a sentence unnecessarily long. Let's take the following passive voice sentence as an example.\r\n

      Daphne Blake Public School was built in 1969.<\/em><\/p>\r\nBased on the sentence, we don't know who built the school, but do we need to? And if we were to name all the people involved, wouldn't that make the sentence really long? It's better to use passive voice here. That sentence delivers the key message clearly and efficiently.\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\nWhen you want to keep the focus on the receiver of the action<\/strong>\r\n\r\nIn some cases, the actor is not really the most important part of the message of a sentence. For example, let's say I'm going to tell my wife some news about my friend Tim, who has injured himself recently. I could report the news in the active voice like this:\r\n

      Dr. Mustafar diagnosed Tim with a herniated disk in his back.<\/em><\/p>\r\nBut in this sentence, Tim is getting lost in the middle. If my main concern is Tim, then this sentence isn't doing a good job. And unless my wife knows this doctor, there's no real reason to include their name. Look how much more efficient the passive voice is here:\r\n

      Tim was diagnosed with a herniated disk in his back.<\/em><\/p>\r\nNow the sentence is shorter and it's focused on the important parts: my friend and his injury.\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\nWhen you're writing in specific (scientific) disciplines<\/strong>\r\n\r\nSome disciplines (mainly sciences) require or encourage writing in passive voice to emphasize the objectivity of research. You can't write in first-person if you're in passive voice, so you're less likely to appear biased.\r\n\r\nSo, rather than writing about a scientific procedure in the active voice like this\r\n

      We observed a correlation between ice cream sales and violent crime.<\/em><\/p>\r\nWriters use the passive voice, like this:\r\n

      A correlation was found between ice cream sales and violent crime.<\/em><\/p>\r\nThe passive voice here makes the results seem less biased (though it doesn't actually affect bias).\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\nWhen you want to avoid unnecessary confrontation or angry responses<\/strong>\r\n\r\nBefore I get too far into this discussion, I want to make sure I'm clear about one thing: using passive voice, or any other writing technique, to avoid taking responsibility for your mistakes is crummy, unethical behaviour. However, there are times when it might be necessary to de-emphasize your actions and focus readers' attention more on the action itself. One common example, which comes up often in technical and workplace communication, is delivering bad news.\r\n\r\nSay, for example, you're at work answering an email from someone who has purchased something from your company and wants to return it after two months. However, your company only allows returns within one month.\r\n\r\nResponding in active voice might look like this: \"Company policy only allows returns up to one month after purchase, so I'm not going to process your refund.<\/span>\"\u00a0 When you do that, though, you're marking yourself as the one doing something the customer will dislike. If the customer sees you as responsible for denying their return, they might respond negatively. But you're not responsible! You just have the unfortunate duty of letting them know about the policy.\r\n\r\nIn this instance, writing in the passive voice can soften the blow a little bit and help you preserve goodwill with the person you're writing to. Re-framing the earlier message in passive voice might look like this: \"The refund can't be processed because company policy only allows returns up to one month after purchase.\"\u00a0 In the passive voice, I leave myself out of the decision; I don't make the reader think that I'm the one making the decision. As a result, the customer will more likely understand the truth: the policy is the issue, not me. I just work here.\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n \r\n

      \r\n

      The Ethics of Voice<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/header>\r\n

      \r\n\r\nBecause active and passive voice either highlight or obscure who is doing an action, it can be used to influence how readers perceive events they're reading about. In other words, voice has a rhetorical<\/strong> effect on readers. As writers, we need to be aware of those effects.\r\n\r\nResearch has demonstrated, for example, that journalists tend to describe violence by men against women (eg., domestic violence) in the passive voice[footnote]Frazer & Miller (2009). \"Passive Voice in Narratives Describing Domestic Violence.\" Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 28(1), 62-71. www.doi.org\/10.1177\/0261927X08325883[\/footnote], and that when that happens, readers tend to assign more blame to victims and consider the violence less harmful. The same is true for racialized violence. Analysis of American recent social studies texts, for example, demonstrated how violence by Indigenous people is often written in active voice (\"[Crazy Horse] killed Custer and all of his men\"), but violence\u00a0against\u00a0<\/em>Indigenous people (by whites) is expressed in passive voice (\"hundreds of Native American men, women, and children were killed\").[footnote][footnote]Jimenez (2020). \"Race, Discrimination, and the Passive Voice: Hardship Narratives in U.S. Social Studies Textbooks 1860s to Present.\" Journal of Social Studies Education Research 11(2), 1-26.[\/footnote]. Such use of passive and active voice can reinforce negative stereotypes about Indigenous people and make it easy to dismiss the violence of white European settlers.\r\n\r\nSo, remember that you have power as a writer, even in little decisions about passive and active voice. It's up to you to use that power responsibly.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n \r\n

      <\/p>","rendered":"

      A small elementary school is run by my brother, and the school is attended by about 200 students. Many subjects are learned, including math and English. At recess, games are played, and some fun conversations are had by students. When the bell rings at noon, lunch is eaten and kindergarten kids are taken home by their parents.<\/em><\/div>\n

       <\/p>\n

      I’ve started this chapter with a short description of my brother’s job as a school principal to illustrate a common stylistic issue in writing. Perhaps, as you read the text in the box above, you found it awkward or confusing. For example, you might wonder who plays games at recess? The passage does not answer this question.<\/p>\n

      The reason the passage is difficult (or even irritating) to read has to do with the way I’ve built the sentences. These sentences employ something called the passive voice<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

      What is ‘Voice’?<\/h3>\n

      When we talk about voice, we’re talking about verbs (actions) <\/strong>— who is doing them, and who is receiving them (ie., who are they happening to<\/em>). We’re going to discuss two voices: active and passive.<\/p>\n

      Active Voice<\/h5>\n

      In the\u00a0active voice<\/strong>, the subject of the sentence does<\/span>\u00a0the action.<\/p>\n

      Marie throws the ball very hard.<\/em><\/p>\n

      Throws<\/em> is the action in the sentence, and the subject — Marie —<\/em> is the one who does it.<\/p>\n

      Most sentences in English follow this pattern. It tends to be clearer and more efficient.<\/p>\n

       <\/p>\n

      Passive Voice<\/h5>\n

      In the passive voice, the subject of the sentence\u00a0receives<\/span> the action (ie., the action happens to the subject).<\/p>\n

      The ball was thrown very hard by Marie.<\/em><\/p>\n

      The ball was thrown very hard.<\/em><\/p>\n

      This time the action is captured with the verb was<\/em> thrown<\/em>, and the subject — ball<\/em>\u00a0—<\/em> is the thing the action happens to (the receiver<\/em> of the action). We don’t find out who did the action until the end of the sentence, if at all.<\/p>\n

       <\/p>\n

      Active Voice is Better — Usually<\/h5>\n

      Generally speaking, the active voice is preferred for a few reasons, which I’ll demonstrate here.<\/p>\n

       <\/p>\n

      Reason 1: It’s More Efficient<\/strong><\/p>\n

      When we write, we want to communicate clearly and efficiently — no wasted words. Active voice produces shorter, more efficient sentences, as we can see by comparing the two sentences below:<\/p>\n

       <\/p>\n

      ACTIVE:\u00a0 \u00a0Marie throws the ball very hard.<\/em><\/p>\n

      PASSIVE:\u00a0\u00a0The ball is thrown<\/span> very bard by<\/span> Marie.<\/em><\/p>\n

       <\/p>\n

      Notice the underlined portions: I have to change the verb in passive voice — a helping verb is needed now — and I also have to add a preposition by\u00a0<\/em>in order to explain who did the action. Those extra words make the sentence longer than it needs to be.<\/p>\n

       <\/p>\n

      Reason 2: It’s Clearer<\/strong><\/p>\n

      Generally speaking, readers like to understand “who is doing what.” Passive voice makes that harder to understand because in the passive voice, you don’t need to mention the person doing the action.<\/p>\n

      Remember that a sentence must have a subject and a verb in it. In the active voice, the subject is the person\/thing doing the action, so we can’t leave it out. I can’t walk up to someone and say, “Slurped her soup.” That’s not a sentence; there’s no subject.<\/p>\n

      But in the passive voice, the subject is the person\/thing who receives the action. The person\/thing who\u00a0does<\/em> the action is just extra information.<\/p>\n

      So while I can’t write “Slurped her soup,” I can say, “Her soup was slurped.” That’s a sentence:\u00a0soup\u00a0<\/em>is the subject and\u00a0was slurped<\/em> is the verb.<\/p>\n

      Just because it’s grammatically correct, though, doesn’t mean it’s clear. Do we know who slurped the soup? No, we don’t. Passive voice allows me to leave that part out.<\/p>\n

      So generally speaking, the active voice makes things easier on readers because it clarifies “who is doing what.”<\/p>\n

       <\/p>\n

      Identifying Passive Voice<\/h3>\n

      Finding passive voice in your own writing is really easy if you follow a trick invented by Dr. Rebecca Johnson, a professor at US Marine Corps University. It’s called\u00a0the zombie test.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

       <\/p>\n

      \"\"<\/p>\n

      All you have to do to check for passive voice is to find the main action verb in your sentence and insert the phrase “by zombies” after it. If the sentence still sounds like a sentence, then you’re using passive voice. Let me show you an example.<\/p>\n

      All the blankets on my bed were washed.<\/em><\/p>\n

      Okay, so I found the action verb; it’s washed<\/em>. Now I’m going to add the phrase “by zombies” after the verb, to get this:<\/p>\n

      All the blankets on my bed were washed by zombies.<\/em><\/p>\n

      Read the sentence out loud. It’s a pretty strange image, zombies doing laundry, but it sounds like a sentence to me. That means the sentence is in passive voice.<\/p>\n

      Now let’s take a look at another example to see what it will sound like if the sentence is written in active voice.<\/p>\n

      My puppy ate all his food.<\/em><\/p>\n

      Once again I’ll find the action verb and place the phrase “by zombies” afterward, to get this:<\/p>\n

      My puppy ate by zombies all his food.<\/em><\/p>\n

      Read that sentence out loud, and I think you’ll find that it sounds “wrong.” That means the sentence is in active voice.<\/p>\n

       <\/p>\n

      Another Method for Identifying Voice<\/h5>\n

      If you don’t want to use the Zombie Test, you can identify passive voice with a simple process.<\/p>\n

        \n
      1. Locate the main verb in the sentence and then look to the left of the verb (ie., the words in the sentence that come before the verb).\n
          \n
        • If you see the person\/thing that does<\/em><\/span> the action, the sentence is in active voice.<\/li>\n
        • If you see the person\/thing that\u00a0receives<\/em><\/span> the action, then the sentence is in passive voice.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

           <\/p>\n

          \n
          \n

          PRACTICE: Active or Passive?<\/p>\n<\/header>\n

          \n
          \n