Active vs Passive Voice: Choosing Emphasis

Learn the Strategic Difference and Empower Your Sentences

Reviewed by the Grammarlyzer Editorial Team · Our Review Standards · Published May 28, 2026 · Updated July 15, 2026

Quick Answer

The difference between the two voices is the grammatical role of the subject:

Active Voice = The subject of the sentence performs the action. (e.g., "The manager approved the budget.")

Passive Voice = The subject receives the action, with the actor placed at the end or removed entirely. (e.g., "The budget was approved [by the manager].")

Quick heuristic: Try adding a by phrase after a form of be plus a past participle. The file was deleted by the system is passive. Treat this as a prompt to inspect the sentence, not a complete grammar test: some past participles act as adjectives, and English also has get-passives.

🔑 Key Takeaway

Active voice often names the actor earlier and uses fewer words. Passive voice is not grammatically wrong; it shifts attention to the action or recipient and can be useful when the actor is unknown, irrelevant, or deliberately backgrounded. Purdue OWL's discussion of active and passive voice illustrates how the subject's role distinguishes the two voices.

The focus here is the decision: weighing the trade-offs and knowing which voice fits a given context, from science to journalism. If you first need to understand what passive voice is and how to recognize or undo it, start with our guide to identifying and fixing passive voice.

Quick Comparison

Voice Sentence Structure Primary Focus Best Used For
Active Voice Subject + Verb + Object The person or thing performing the action Business emails, storytelling, persuasive essays, general writing
Passive Voice Object + [To Be] + Past Participle (+ by Subject) The action itself or the recipient of the action Scientific reports, crime reports, diplomatic communications

Common Mistakes

❌ Weak/Evasive:

Mistakes were made in the execution of the project.

✓ Strong/Accountable:

Our team made mistakes during the project's execution.

The passive version does not name who made the mistakes. When accountability matters, the active revision identifies the responsible team.
❌ Wordy:

The new software platform was chosen by our board members.

✓ Crisp:

Our board chose the new software platform.

The active option names the actor first and uses fewer words: The committee chose replaces was chosen by the committee.
❌ Evasive:

It has been decided that the office will close early.

✓ Accountable:

Management decided to close the office early.

It has been decided omits who made the call. Naming the actor makes that responsibility explicit in workplace communication.
❌ Awkward:

The results were able to be replicated by the lab.

✓ Direct:

The lab replicated the results.

Stacking "were able to be" creates a clumsy double construction. Active voice states the same fact in three fewer words.

Deep Dive: When and Why to Use Each Voice

Advice to avoid every passive sentence is incomplete. Both structures have legitimate roles; the useful question is which participant the reader needs first.

1. Why Active Voice Often Reads More Directly

Active voice identifies the actor immediately. In sentences where responsibility matters, that order can reduce ambiguity and unnecessary helper verbs.

  • Action: "We launched the product" vs. "The product was launched by us."
  • Actor-first structure: Active clauses place the actor before the verb, which can help readers identify who performs the action.

2. When Passive Voice is Actually Better

Passive voice isn't a grammar error; it is an emphasis shifter. It is highly effective in several specific situations:

  • Process focus: "The solution was heated to 100°C" (The procedure matters here; naming who heated it would not help the reader reproduce the step).
  • The Actor is Unknown: "Our office window was broken overnight."
  • Emphasizing the recipient or result: The ancient treaty was signed in 1912. The passive structure foregrounds the treaty rather than the signers.

Identify the Passive Construction

💡 How to Identify the Passive Voice Structure

A common passive construction uses a form of be plus a past participle: was reviewed, is executed, has been carefully analyzed. The words need not be adjacent, and some passives use get, as in the file got deleted. Simply using was or is does not make a sentence passive.

Real-World Examples

See how professional and academic contexts require active or passive structures depending on the goal.

💼 Business:

We designed the new software to automate invoice generation.

Active: Focuses on the company's innovation and agency.
💼 Business:

Your password has been reset successfully.

Passive: Useful because the system performed the reset, not a specific human, and the user only cares about the result.
🎓 Academic:

We synthesized the compound using the standard method.

Active: Standard in modern journals to show the researcher's active role.
🎓 Academic:

The compound was synthesized under highly controlled conditions.

Passive: Focuses purely on the compound and protocol, a staple of classic scientific methodology.

Why Do People Confuse Them?

Voice and tense answer different questions. He ran to the store is past tense but active; the store was closed can be past and passive. Both active and passive sentences can occur in several tenses. In workplace writing, an agentless passive can also obscure responsibility, so check whether the actor is missing for a reason. For a focused walkthrough of rewriting these sentences, see Passive Voice; for agreement checks after a rewrite, use Subject-Verb Agreement.

🎯 Test Your Knowledge

1. Identify the voice: "The software automatically generates a weekly performance report."

2. Identify the voice: "The server room was cooled by a backup ventilation system during the outage."

3. Identify the voice: "Several pricing errors were made during the migration."

4. Identify the voice: "Our editor reviews every article before publication."

Try It: Turn Passive Into Active

The sentence “Mistakes were made in the execution of the project” is grammatical passive voice and leaves the actor unnamed. Run the recorded example, then decide manually whether naming the actor would serve the context.

Possible active revision: Our team made mistakes during the project's execution.

In our July 15 browser test, the engine returned no issues for both the passive seed and the active alternative. The test therefore demonstrates no automatic voice preference; choose the subject according to the actor, recipient, or result you need to foreground.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between active voice and passive voice?

In active voice, the subject performs the action, as in 'The team completed the project.' In passive voice, the subject receives the action, as in 'The project was completed by the team.'

Is the passive voice grammatically incorrect?

No. Passive voice is grammatical. Active voice can make the actor clearer, while passive voice is useful when the actor is unknown or unimportant or when the recipient or result needs emphasis.

How do you test if a sentence is in the passive voice?

Look for a past participle with a passive auxiliary such as be or get, then ask whether the subject receives the action. A by phrase can be a useful clue, but it is not a complete test because participles can also function as adjectives.

How do I change a passive sentence into active?

Find the real actor, often after the word by, make it the subject, and use a direct verb. 'The report was written by Sara' becomes 'Sara wrote the report.'

Does using 'was' or 'is' make a sentence passive?

No. A common passive uses a form of be plus a past participle, but be can also be a linking verb and some participles function as adjectives. 'She is happy' is not passive.

Is passive voice acceptable in academic writing?

Yes. Passive voice can keep the focus on a process or result, while active voice can make the researcher or argument clearer. Follow the conventions of the target field and publication.

Why does my grammar checker flag passive voice?

A checker may present passive voice as a style suggestion rather than a grammar error. Grammarlyzer did not flag the grammatical passive used in this page's recorded test, so the writer must decide whether the actor or recipient deserves emphasis.

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Use the checker for a mechanical pass, then identify the actor and recipient yourself. The recorded passive and active sentences both returned no issues, so the tool did not choose between them.

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