Passive and Active Voice

Passive and active voice play tug-of-war constantly. You’ll find this battle of the verb forms played out in Word’s grammar check. Word suggests you should always avoid passive voice. Yet, that isn’t reasonable. There is a place for its use. At the same time, active verb forms are usually preferable.

For some reason, inexperienced writers tend to use passive voice more often than active. This tendency strips the written word of its power. It adds superfluous words., generates sluggish pacing and bores readers. You must overcome this tendency if you wish to become a successful author.

Passive Voice

EnglishPage.com does an excellent job of describing the difference between passive and active voice. They use the following ‘equation’ to describe passive voice.

[Thing receiving action] + [be] + [past participle of verb] + [by] + [thing/person doing action]

Here’s the equation in use.

The lawn [receives the action] is [to be verb] mowed [past participle] by my son [person doing the action].

While this isn’t impossible to understand, it takes more time for your reader to grasp. Why? Because we are far less likely to use this form in conversation. There are extra words required as well. It’s important as an author to remember that many of your potential readers struggle with reading. They do it out of necessity, not for pleasure.

Active Voice

Now let’s look at the active voice equation.

[Thing doing action] + [verb] + [thing receiving action]

Here’s the equation in use.

My son [thing doing action] mows [verb] the lawn [thing receiving action].

It only takes five words to say the same thing that took seven words in passive voice. Especially when something is alive, acting on an inanimate object follows natural expectations. Your reader doesn’t have to translate what you wrote so it makes sense. It makes sense immediately.

‘To Be’ Verbs Don’t Make Passive Voice.

While the ‘to be’ verbs (is, are, was, were, be, being, been) can be signs of passive voice, they aren’t always. They often play an essential role in showing when the action occurs/occurred.

The chart below shows how often ‘to be’ verbs can appear in active voice.

	Passive	Active
Simple Present	Once a week, my son washes the car.	Once a week, the car is washed by my son.
Present Continuous	My son is washing the car.	The car is being washed by my son.
Simple Past	My son washed the car.	The car was washed by my son.
Past Continuous	My son was washing the car.	The car was being washed by my son.
Present Perfect	My son has washed the car.	The car has been washed by my son.
Present Perfect Continuous	My son has been washing the car.	The car has been being washed by my son.
Past Perfect	My son had washed the car.	The car had been washed by my son.
Past Perfect Continuous	My son had been washing the car before I called him to eat dinner.	The car had been being washed by my son before I called him to eat dinner.
Simple Future will	My son will wash the car by tonight.	The car will be washed by my son by tonight.
Simple Future be going to	My son is going to wash the car tonight.	The car is going to be washed by my son tonight.
Future Continuous will	Tonight, my son will be washing the car.	Tonight, the car will be being washed by my son.
Future Continuous be going to	Tonight, my son is going to be washing the car.	Tonight, the car is going to be being washed by my son.
Future Perfect will	My son will have washed the car before dinner.	The car will have been washed before dinner.
Future Perfect be going to	My son is going to have washed the car before dinner.	The car is going to have been washed before dinner.
Future Perfect Continuous will	My son will have been washing the car for over an hour by the time he is done.	The car will have been being washed by my son for over an hour by the time he is done.
Future Perfect Continuous be going to	My son is going to have been washing the car for over an hour by the time he is done.	The carl is going to have been being washed by my son for over an hour by the time he is done.
Used to	My son used to wash the car.	The car used to be washed by my son.
Would Always	My son would always wash the car.	The car would always be washed by my son.
Future in the Past Would	I knew my son would wash the car by dinner.	I knew the car would be washed by my son by dinner.
Future in the Past Was Going to	I thought my son was going to wash the car tonight.	I thought the car was going to be washed by my son tonight.

Summary

Your goal as a writer is straightforward. Whenever possible, write so the subject acts upon the object.