How to Identify Passive Voice

How to Identify Passive Voice Before we show how to identify passive voice, lets dispel a few myths that make yours truly turn into a hairy, clawed monster every time theyre repeated. Im willing to sacrifice the monster coming out so you can rid yourself of these passive voice falsehoods. Passive Voice Is Incorrect This is the worst one, and the thought that many believe this is already turning me into a werewolf. No, no, no, and absolutely no! Using passive voice is not wrong. There are even times when its absolutely necessary. When You See a Form Of To Be, Its Passive Voice Not necessarily to be is sometimes, but not always, passive voice. Grammar Checkers Find Passive Voice No, they cant. Grammar checkers are dicey. They can help, but they can also be a real pain in parts of the anatomy I will not mention here. The fact is, theyre quite capable of missing passive voice, and theyre quite capable of missing real grammatical errors, or identifying correct sentences as being incorrect. There are no short cuts. Its important to actually learn your grammar. Whats Passive Voice? Passive reverses the position of the subject (the doer) and the object (the thing that is acted on). Confused? An example makes it clearer. The paper was passed by the professor. Thats passive voice. The professor passed the paper. Thats active voice. In the second sentence, you have a normal structure of a subject (professor) doing something active (passing) to an object (paper). The first sentence makes the paper into the subject and does not emphasize the verb or who committed the act. How do we know which is which? In passive voice, the doer comes after the thing that was done. Also, you can look for forms of to be followed by a past participle. In our example, was is a form of to be and the past participle is passed. Forms of to be are: was, is, am, are, have been, has, will be, being, and will have been. Am I contradicting my statement that to be (and its forms) does not always indicate passive voice? No. the past participle is the key. Look at this. I know how it feels to be a werewolf. Thats active voice. There is no past participle. The subject, I, comes first. I know how it feels to be confused, is also active voice because the subject I comes before the thing that happened. Further, confused is an adjective that describes a feeling or state. Is There an Easy Way to Identify Passive Voice? Yes, and its really simple. To identify passive voice, look at what happened and look at who was responsible for doing it. If the person or thing responsible for doing the actions is either omitted or occurs in the sentence AFTER the thing that happened, AND if you see a past participle straight after the form of to be, its passive voice. Poland was invaded. Passive voice the doer is absent. Poland was invaded by Germany. Thats passive voice. The doer comes after the thing that was done. Germany invaded Poland. Thats active voice. The doer comes first. Why Do People Believe Passive Voice Is Bad? Although the passive voice is perfectly correct and sometimes even preferable, it may be a trifle vague especially when doers are omitted. So looking at our World War 2 example, Poland was invaded. Who did it? The second passive voice example gives all the facts, but the third example is the most lucid and concise. It uses three words whereas the second passive voice version needs five. Active voice sentences are often shorter, clearer and easier to understand. When Is the Passive Voice the Best Way to Say Things? Passive voice is preferable when: Nobody knows who was responsible: A fire was started. Nobody cares who was responsible: Shrubs were planted. You dont know, you dont care, but you know it happened, so youre being deliberately vague: The law was passed in 1935. What youre saying is always true regardless of who or what does it: Rules were made to be broken. The thing that was acted on is more important than what caused it to happen: The road was built in 100 AD. You are writing in a genre that generally requires the passive voice. This often applies to scientific papers, usually in the materials and methods section: 100 plants were subjected to CO2 enrichment. When you use the passive voice, be sure that its the best way to say what you want to say. Beware of omitting important facts since passive voice allows you to do so without a grammatical error. Also, beware of turning an easy statement into an awkward one by making it longer and more complicated than it needs to be.