Active and passive voice
Use the passive voice to shift focus from the agent to the action or recipient, understanding how passive constructions affect the presentation of information in formal and objective writing
What a learner can do afterwards
- Convert active sentences to passive voice and explain the change in emphasis
- Identify passive constructions in news reports and scientific writing
- Choose between active and passive voice based on purpose and audience
The lesson
In most sentences, the subject does the action. "The chef cooked the meal." Chef is the subject, and chef is doing the cooking. This is called active voice.
Sometimes you flip the sentence around so the thing that received the action comes first. "The meal was cooked by the chef." Now meal is the subject, but meal did not do the cooking. This is called passive voice.
In a science report, a student could write "We carried out the experiment" (active) or "The experiment was carried out" (passive). Scientists often choose the passive version so the report stays focused on the experiment, not on who did it.
Use active voice when you want to be clear and direct about who did something. Use passive voice when the doer is unknown, unimportant, or you want your writing to sound more formal and objective, like in news reports or science reports.
Active voice starts with the doer of the action, and passive voice starts with the receiver of the action, often leaving the doer out altogether.
Watch it
Where it sits
Where this leads
Jobs that lean on this skill. Follow one to see everything it is built on.
8 questions wait behind this lesson, each with its answer explained. Every answer feeds the sky: stars light as they are learned, and dim when it is time to come back.