# Passive voice > A sentence form in which the subject receives the action instead of doing it: "The window was broken" rather than the active "Sam broke the window." It is built with a form of "to be" plus a past participle. Also known as active vs. passive voice ## In practice In the active voice, the subject of a sentence does the action: "The dog bit the mail carrier." In the passive voice, the subject receives the action, and the doer moves to a "by" phrase or disappears: "The mail carrier was bitten by the dog," or simply "The mail carrier was bitten." Both sentences report the same event. What changes is who stands at the front of the sentence, and whether the reader learns who did it. You can spot the passive by its shape: a form of "to be" (is, was, were, has been, will be) or sometimes "get," followed by a past participle (bitten, written, taken, approved). A quick test is to add "by zombies" after the verb. If the sentence still makes sense, as in "The window was broken by zombies," it is passive. If it does not, as in "The window broke by zombies," it is active. Passive voice is not a grammar error, and it is not the same thing as weak writing, past tense or a long sentence. It is a choice about emphasis. Style guides such as Strunk and White's The Elements of Style tell writers to prefer the active voice because it is usually shorter and clearer about responsibility, but the same book calls the passive "frequently convenient and sometimes necessary," for example when the doer is unknown, unimportant or deliberately kept out of sight. ## Active and passive voice in a scene about who is to blame **A manager explains a missing shipment** ``` INT. WAREHOUSE OFFICE - NIGHT The phone is on speaker. RENATA (50s) stands at the window with her arms crossed. TOM (30s) reads from a printed email. TOM "Mistakes were made, and the order was not shipped on time." RENATA Read it the other way. TOM I forgot to send the order. A long silence on the speakerphone. Renata uncrosses her arms. ``` Tom's email hides the doer twice: "mistakes were made" and "the order was not shipped" never say by whom. Renata's request turns both into one active sentence with a subject, and the scene's tension comes from that change. The passive here is a character choice, not a style slip, and the scene uses it on purpose. ## Active vs. passive voice examples Here are pairs that say the same thing. Active: "The committee approved the budget." Passive: "The budget was approved by the committee." Active: "Someone stole my bike." Passive: "My bike was stolen." Active: "The storm will close the roads." Passive: "The roads will be closed by the storm." Notice that the passive keeps the same tense as the active; voice and tense are separate choices. Passive sentences come in two kinds. A long passive keeps the doer in a "by" phrase: "The novel was written by Toni Morrison." A short passive drops the doer entirely: "The novel was written in 1987." The short passive is the one that hides responsibility, and it is the one to check first when you revise. Some sentences look passive but are not. "She was tired" uses "was" with an adjective, not an action done to her. "He was running" is the past continuous, still active. "The door is closed" can describe a state (it is shut) rather than an action (somebody shut it). The "by zombies" test sorts most of these quickly. ## When to use the passive voice Use the passive when the doer is unknown ("The painting was stolen in 1990"), obvious ("He was elected in 2008"), or less important than what happened to someone ("Three people were injured"). News reports, science writing and legal documents often use it for these reasons. A lab report says "the sample was heated to 90 degrees" because the reader cares about the sample, not the student holding the burner. Use it to control what comes first and last in a sentence. English readers expect old information at the start and new information at the end. "The prize went to a stranger. The stranger was later identified as her brother" keeps "the stranger" in the subject position, linking the two sentences. Rewriting the second as active would break that chain. Avoid it when it blurs who is responsible in writing that needs to be clear: instructions, feedback, apologies and arguments. "Mistakes were made" became a famous phrase in American politics because it admits an error without naming anyone. If your reader needs to know who did something, say who. ## How to change passive voice to active Find the doer, move it to the front and make it the subject, then turn the "to be + past participle" into an ordinary verb. "The report was written by the intern" becomes "The intern wrote the report." If there is no "by" phrase, you have to supply the doer: "The decision was made yesterday" becomes "The board made the decision yesterday." Do not change every passive automatically. Grammar checkers flag the passive as if it were a mistake, but a sentence like "She was born in Seoul" has no useful active version. Revise a passive when the active is shorter, clearer or more honest about who acted; keep it when it puts the right thing first. ## Passive voice in fiction and screenplays In fiction, the passive can create mystery or helplessness. "The door was opened" makes the reader ask by whom, which is useful in a horror scene and frustrating in a plain one. A character who speaks in the passive often sounds evasive, formal or bureaucratic, which can tell the audience a lot about them in one line, as Tom's email does above. [Screenplay](https://www.inkwell.software/glossary/screenplay) action lines are almost always written in the active voice and present tense, because they describe what the audience sees as it happens: "Mara slams the drawer," not "The drawer is slammed by Mara." A passive action line can work when the doer is off screen on purpose ("The lights are cut"), but a page full of them reads slowly and makes the action feel as if it is happening to no one. ## A five-minute voice revision Take a paragraph you wrote recently and underline every "was," "were," "is," "are," "been" or "being" followed by a past participle. For each one, write down who did the action. If you cannot name the doer, ask whether the reader needs to know. If they do, rewrite the sentence in the active voice. Then do the reverse once. Pick one active sentence where the thing acted upon matters more than the actor, and make it passive. Read the paragraph aloud. The goal is not zero passives; it is a paragraph where every sentence puts the important thing first on purpose. ## Official sources & context Sources reviewed Nov 5, 2026 - [The Writing Center, UNC Chapel Hill — Passive voice](https://writingcenter.unc.edu/tips-and-tools/passive-voice/) - [Purdue OWL — Active and passive voice](https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/academic_writing/active_and_passive_voice/index.html) [Revise it in Canvas](https://www.inkwell.software/canvas) ## Common questions ### What is passive voice? Passive voice is a sentence structure in which the subject receives the action instead of doing it, as in "The cake was eaten." It is built with a form of "to be" plus a past participle. ### What is active voice? Active voice is a sentence structure in which the subject performs the action, as in "Sam ate the cake." Most English sentences are active, and most style guides recommend it as the default. ### What is the difference between active and passive voice? In active voice the doer is the subject ("The chef burned the toast"). In passive voice the thing acted on is the subject, and the doer comes after "by" or is left out ("The toast was burned"). ### Is passive voice wrong? No. Passive voice is grammatically correct. It is a poor choice when it hides who did something or makes a sentence longer for no reason, and a good choice when the doer is unknown or less important. ### How do you identify passive voice? Look for a form of "to be" followed by a past participle, such as "was written" or "has been approved." Then try adding "by zombies" after the verb; if the sentence still makes sense, it is passive. ### Is past tense the same as passive voice? No. Tense is about time and voice is about who acts. "She wrote the letter" is past and active; "The letter is written every year" is present and passive. Any tense can be active or passive. ### Should screenplays use passive voice? Rarely. Action lines describe what the audience sees in the present tense, so active voice keeps them fast and clear. Use the passive only when you deliberately want to keep the doer off screen. ## Related terms - [Diction](https://www.inkwell.software/glossary/diction): A writer's choice of words, and the attitude those words carry. "Passed away" and "croaked" report the same death; the diction tells you who is speaking and how they feel. - [Tone](https://www.inkwell.software/glossary/tone): The writer's or narrator's attitude toward the subject and the audience, shown through word choice, detail and rhythm: wry, somber, playful, bitter, warm. The same events told in a different tone become a different story. - [Dangling modifier](https://www.inkwell.software/glossary/dangling-modifier): A descriptive phrase with no word in the sentence it can logically describe, so it attaches to the wrong one: "Walking to school, the rain started" says the rain was walking. - [Action](https://www.inkwell.software/glossary/action): The descriptive prose of a screenplay — what the audience sees and hears, written in present tense. Also called description. --- Canonical page: