Everyone remembers their high school English teachers admonishing them against using the dreaded passive voice. According to composition class lore, using passive voice was the chief writing sin—and avoiding it was the key to strengthening writing. If true, then two questions remain:
In this blog post, we’ll give you a refresher on passive voice, show you how to fix it, and explain the four times when passive voice is acceptable in your writing.
Passive sentences (also called the passive voice, passive constructions, and passive grammar) use some form of be with a past participle. The past participle shows the semantic action verb (the action that someone or something did), but it’s not the main grammatical verb of the sentence. The actor (the person or thing doing the action) isn’t the grammatical subject; the actor (also called the agent) is either not in the sentence or comes after the word by.
Passive sentence: The contract was signed by the two parties.
Grammatical subject: the contract
Semantic (actual) actor / agent: the two parties
Main grammatical verb: was
Semantic (actual) action: signing
In the clearest sentences, the grammatical subject and the semantic (actual) subject are the same, and the main grammatical verb and the semantic verb are the same. Here’s an active (and clearer) version of the passive sentence above:
Active sentence: The two parties signed the contract.
Grammatical subject: the contract
Semantic (actual) actor: the parties
Main grammatical verb: signed
Semantic (actual) action: signing