Passive Voice
Finds to-be + past-participle constructions where the actor has left the stage.
Passive voice isn't a grammar error — it's a trade. You trade the actor for the action, and sometimes that's the right trade. When the actor is genuinely unknown ("the window was broken"), irrelevant ("the data were collected over six months"), or deliberately withheld for effect, passive earns its place. The problem is when it becomes a habit of evasion: decisions get made, mistakes were made, customers are being affected. Someone made those decisions. Someone made those mistakes. Passive lets the guilty party slip out the back.
The test isn't the construction itself — it's whether a nameable actor is hiding behind it. If you can ask "by whom?" and the answer matters, the passive is costing you. If the answer is "doesn't matter" or "genuinely unknown," you're probably fine. Science writing leans on passive by convention because the method, not the scientist, is the point. Legal and policy writing uses it to state what is required without pinning the requirement on any one person. Both are legitimate. Neither excuses the corporate memo that says "your position has been eliminated" when a human being eliminated it.
The other cost is rhythm. Actor-first sentences move. "She revised the draft" has a spine. "The draft was revised by her" is the same information lying down. Over several sentences, passive accumulates into a tone readers feel as sluggish or evasive even when they can't name why. Use it purposefully, not habitually.
In practice
The actor is hiding
Several complaints were filed, and the issue was escalated.
Customers filed several complaints, and the support team escalated the issue.
Naming who did what takes five extra words and doubles the accountability — the reason the passive version was probably chosen.
The actor genuinely doesn't matter
Researchers collected the samples between March and June.
The samples were collected between March and June.
In a methods section, the passive is correct: the timeline and procedure are the point, not which hands held the vials.
Rhythm and momentum
The door was pushed open by Marcus, and the room was scanned by him quickly.
Marcus pushed the door open and scanned the room.
Two passives in a row flatten the beat; flipping both to active compresses the sentence and puts the character in motion.
Common questions
- Is passive voice always wrong?
- No — passive voice is wrong when it hides an actor the reader needs to know about. When the actor is unknown, unimportant, or intentionally backgrounded, passive is the correct choice.
- How do I find passive voice in my writing?
- Search for forms of "to be" (is, was, were, has been, will be) followed by a past participle (a verb ending in -ed or an irregular equivalent like "written" or "broken"). Then ask whether a nameable actor is missing from the sentence.
- Why does passive voice feel bureaucratic or evasive?
- Because it frequently is — it removes the subject responsible for an action, which is exactly why corporate and political language reaches for it. Even when evasion isn't the intent, readers have learned to associate the construction with it.
- Does passive voice weaken every sentence?
- Not every sentence, but it weakens sentences where momentum and clarity depend on knowing who acted. In narrative, action, and argument, actor-first sentences carry more force; passive accumulates into sluggishness across a paragraph even when individual instances seem harmless.
Inside Verbaria
Verbaria's editor flags passive constructions inline and prompts you to ask whether a nameable actor is missing — so the call stays yours rather than becoming a find-and-replace reflex.
Try it on your own writing
Free, no signup, and nothing you paste leaves your browser.
- Read my writing like an editorPaste your draft and see it marked the way an editor marks it — hard sentences, passive voice, buried verbs, hedges, weak landings, slow openings, all in the text itself.
- How hard is this to read?Paste a piece and get its reading level, its reading ease, how long it takes to read, and the specific sentences carrying the weight.
Where it comes from: Strunk & White; Orwell's 1946 rules; Zinsser — the whole plain-style tradition.
This is one of the tools inside Verbaria — the writing room that names the craft while you work. Read the writing.