Jenny Morse, PhD
Author and CEO

You may have been told in middle school not to use passive voice. Or your high school or college writing teacher used red pen and underlined sentences marking them “Passive voice!!” as if you should’ve known what that meant and why it mattered. Or you see Microsoft Word’s squiggly blue line under a sentence and read “Passive voice” and then just accept whatever suggestion the AI offers.

It’s ok. You don’t have to know everything about writing, and using grammar check is a good habit!

But this is one technique that you may want to know how to use.

Active and Passive are just two different ways of presenting the same information.

Anytime something happens, two perspectives exist: the person/thing that made something happen (Active) and the person/thing that got happened to (Passive).

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For example,

I kicked the ball. Active

I did it. My action moved the ball. And because “I” is at the beginning of the sentence and “ball” is at the end, the sentence focuses on me and my action.

But if you were writing an essay “A Day in the Life of a Ball” (as so many of us did in middle school), you’d take on the ball’s perspective. In the ball’s story, the sentence would be

I got kicked by the human. Passive

This sentence is passive because the ball, now “I”, receives the action of kicking. The ball didn’t do it. The ball suffered from it.

So the exact same event can be described from both perspectives: the perspective of the doer is called Active and the perspective of the receiver is called Passive.

The mom feeds the baby. Active

The baby is fed by her mom. Passive

Guests can hang up their coats in the closet. Active

Coats are hung up in the closet. Passive

Dylan broke the printer. Active

The printer was broken (by Dylan). Passive

Why do we have two ways of framing the exact same event? Because of how they each shape our interpretation or understanding of what happened, who is responsible or to blame, and where our attention should be.

Active sentences focus on the person performing the action. They highlight what is being done.

I’m kicking.

The mom is feeding.

Guests hang up their own coats.

Dylan can’t be trusted.

Passive sentences focus on what happened to the thing or the person. They highlight the impact or effect of an action.

The ball moved.

The baby is eating.

Coats go in the closet.

The printer is a piece of junk.

Your ability to shift between the active and passive constructions allows you to have greater control over the way an audience receives information. What do you want them to focus on?

Most of the time, English and our American culture want to focus on getting things done. The natural energy of our language is about doing. That’s why we prefer the active voice. We like action.

If you are talking about how awesome you are or how awesome your team is, then you want to make sure all of your sentences are Active:

We completed the report. Active

We made a million dollars for that client. Active

We provided the materials ahead of schedule. Active

The reason Microsoft Word and other grammar tools are such fanatics about passive voice is probably because it’s easy to program the rule. The AI can find the passive voice by looking for a few key grammar things like a “by” phrase and a “to be” verb (is) with another verb using an -ed ending:

The ball was kicked by me.

And since passive voice is pretty easy for the robots to find. They want you to know every time they find it! I’m sure you’ve known dogs or children who behave similarly.

Pointing out the passive voice is helpful because once we see it, we can decide whether to keep it. Because sometimes, you do want to use the passive voice.

For example, if something has gone wrong, you may want to switch your sentences to Passive, so you can say what happened without saying who did it (Dylan):

The report is not yet completed. Passive

The sales figures are still being calculated. Passive

The materials will be delivered in 2 days. Passive

These things aren’t *our* fault; they are just the way the world is. No one made any of this happen; it all happens all on its own. At least, that’s what the passive voice allows us to suggest.

Language gives us the ability to transfer ideas from inside my head to inside your head. Someday, technology might let us do this just by sharing the pictures in our heads, but we’re not there yet. For now, I’ve got to talk about or write about my ideas so that you can understand them. And the language I use to talk about or write about my ideas will affect the picture you have in your head.

Think of a table.

No, a wooden table.

No, a round wooden table.

No, a round wooden side table.

No, a round wooden side table with three legs.

Every time I add a word, the picture in your head changes. My words affect the picture in your head.

Choosing active or passive voice is part of what allows us to convey to another person what part of the sentence, idea, or story they should be focusing on. Active voice: the focus is on the person/thing doing. Passive voice: the focus is on the person/thing having something done to them.

So next time Microsoft Word gives you that blue squiggly line under the passive voice, don’t assume you’ve done anything wrong. Thank it for bringing the passive voice to your attention and then make a decision about whether to keep it or not. You know what you want the other person to think about, so make sure you craft a sentence that encourages that line of thinking.

Take our quiz to practice identifying what’s passive and active and how to shift between them!

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