Voice

7.1 What Is Voice?

In English grammar, the term voice refers to the relationship between a verb and the subject of a sentence. More specifically, it tells us whether the subject of a sentence is performing an action or receiving it. This is a grammatical category — much like tense or number — and it has real consequences for how a sentence sounds, what it emphasizes, and how clearly it communicates.

Consider a simple action: someone bakes a cake. That action involves two participants — the person doing the baking and the cake being baked. Voice decides which of these two participants takes the spotlight at the front of the sentence.

• Active: The chef baked the cake.
• Passive: The cake was baked by the chef.

Both sentences describe the same event. The chef and the cake are both present. Yet the sentences feel different. In the first, our attention goes to the chef. In the second, it goes to the cake. That shift in focus is what voice controls.

English has two voices: the active voice and the passive voice. Every sentence that contains a transitive verb — that is, a verb capable of taking an object — can, in principle, be expressed in either voice.

7.2 Active Voice

7.2.1 Definition

A sentence is in the active voice when the grammatical subject is also the agent — the person or thing performing the action. The pattern is direct and forward-moving: someone does something to something else.

7.2.2 Structure of Active Voice

The standard structure of an active voice sentence follows this pattern:

7.2.3 Active Voice Across Tenses

Active voice works in every tense. The verb form changes according to tense rules, but the subject-does-action structure stays the same. The table below illustrates active voice across common tenses:

7.2.4 Why Writers Prefer Active Voice

Active voice is generally preferred in everyday writing and speaking because it is clear, direct, and energetic. When you tell readers who did what without delay, they absorb information more easily. Compare the feel of these two passages:

The active version names the investigator as the driving force. The passive version strips her out entirely, leaving a series of disconnected events with no apparent author. The active version feels more alive.

7.3 Passive Voice

7.3.1 Definition

A sentence is in the passive voice when the grammatical subject is the recipient of the action rather than the agent performing it. The thing being acted upon moves to the front of the sentence, and the actual doer either disappears or is placed in a prepositional phrase using the word by.

7.3.2 Structure of Passive Voice

The passive voice is formed using a form of the auxiliary verb to be combined with the past participle of the main verb. This combination creates the passive construction:

The agent — the doer of the action — can be included using a by-phrase, but it does not have to be. This optional erasure of the agent is one of the passive voice’s most useful and most abused features.

• With agent: The house was painted by the workers.
• Without agent: The house was painted.

7.3.3 Passive Voice Across Tenses

Just as active voice adapts to every tense, so does passive voice. The auxiliary verb be changes form to carry the tense information, while the past participle of the main verb stays constant.

7.3.4 The By-Phrase

When a passive sentence names the agent, it does so through a prepositional phrase beginning with by. This phrase is called the by-phrase or the agent phrase. Its position is typically at the end of the sentence.

• The bridge was designed by a team of civil engineers from Bristol.
• The treaty was signed by representatives of five nations.
• The sculpture was carved by a craftsman who had learned the trade from his father.

The by-phrase is not grammatically required. You may omit it whenever the agent is unknown, unimportant, or already obvious from context. When you do include it, however, it should add useful information — not simply echo what the reader already knows.

If the by-phrase feels obvious or unnecessary, omit it. If it adds meaningful information, keep it.

7.4 Converting Between Active and Passive Voice

Understanding how to convert sentences from active to passive — and back again — is a foundational grammatical skill. The steps are consistent and reliable, though you must always check that the original sentence contains a transitive verb (a verb that takes an object) before attempting a conversion.

7.4.1 Active to Passive

Follow these steps to convert an active sentence to a passive one:

Let us walk through a worked example:

Active: The committee approved the new policy.

Step 1: Object = the new policy
Step 2: “The new policy” moves to subject position
Step 3: “approved” becomes “was approved” (simple past passive)
Step 4: “the committee” moves to a by-phrase
Passive: The new policy was approved by the committee.

7.4.2 Passive to Active

Converting passive sentences back to active voice requires locating the agent, which may be in a by-phrase or may need to be inferred from context.

Worked example:

Passive: The old lighthouse had been converted into a hotel by local investors.

Active: Local investors had converted the old lighthouse into a hotel.

7.4.3 Conversion Reference Table

The table below provides at-a-glance conversion examples across multiple tenses:

7.5 When to Use Each Voice

Grammar textbooks have often presented active voice as correct and passive voice as something to be avoided. This is an oversimplification. Both voices serve genuine communicative purposes, and skilled writers choose between them deliberately. The real question is not which voice is better, but which voice serves your purpose in a given sentence.

7.5.1 When to Use Active Voice

Active voice is generally preferable in the following situations:

• When clarity and directness matter most. Active sentences tell the reader who is doing what without making them decode the sentence structure.
  Active: The safety inspector found three violations.
  Passive: Three violations were found. (Who found them? Unclear.)
• When the agent is important. If readers need to know who performed the action, put that agent in the subject position.
  The surgeon who operated on the patient is Dr. Marianne Kowalski.
• In narrative and journalistic writing. Stories move faster and with more energy when characters perform actions rather than having things happen to them.
  The suspect fled down the alley, vaulted a fence, and disappeared into a crowd.
• In most academic disciplines outside the natural sciences. Psychology, history, economics, and the humanities generally favor active voice.
• When you want to assign credit or responsibility. If someone deserves recognition or accountability, put their name up front.
  Professor Hartley designed the entire curriculum in under three weeks.
  The contractor cut corners on the foundation, causing the collapse.

7.5.2 When to Use Passive Voice

Passive voice is appropriate — and sometimes essential — in the following situations:

• When the agent is unknown. If you do not know who performed the action, passive voice lets you describe the action without fabricating a subject.
  The window had been broken overnight.
  Several paintings were stolen from the gallery during the exhibition.
• When the agent is irrelevant or obvious. Sometimes who did something matters less than what was done.
  The results were recorded and stored in a secure database.
  The accused was found guilty on all counts.
• In scientific and technical writing. Lab reports and academic papers in the natural sciences traditionally use passive voice to maintain an objective tone and shift focus from the researcher to the experiment or process.
  The samples were heated to 200 degrees Celsius for thirty minutes.
  The compound was dissolved in distilled water before testing.
• When you want to protect a sensitive agent. In diplomatic, legal, or political language, passive voice allows writers to describe actions without directly assigning blame.
  Mistakes were made in the handling of this case.
• When you want to keep the topic consistent. In a paragraph focused on a particular subject, passive voice can keep that subject in focus across multiple sentences.
  Margaret Pemberton’s novel has been translated into fourteen languages. It was first published in 1998 and was shortlisted for a major literary award the following year. It is now widely studied in university literature courses.

7.6 Special Cases and Complications

7.6.1 Intransitive Verbs and Voice

Not all verbs can appear in both voices. Intransitive verbs — those that cannot take a direct object — do not have a passive form. You cannot passivize a verb that has no object to promote to subject position.

• She arrived early. (No object — cannot be passivized.)
• The river flooded. (No object — cannot be passivized.)
• He laughed loudly. (No object — cannot be passivized.)

Only transitive verbs — those that act upon an object — can take passive forms. When in doubt, ask: Is there something being acted upon? If not, passive voice is not available.

7.6.2 Stative Passives vs. Dynamic Passives

There is an important but often overlooked distinction between two types of passive constructions: the dynamic passive and the stative passive.

A dynamic passive describes an action being performed. The be + past participle combination functions as a passive verb, and a by-phrase can be attached.

• The bridge was built in 1923. [An action occurred — it was built.]
• The window was broken by the wind. [An action occurred — it was broken.]

A stative passive describes a resulting state rather than an action. The past participle functions more like an adjective. A by-phrase is often awkward or impossible.

• The bridge is closed. [A state — not an ongoing act of closing.]
• The window is broken. [A state — the window is currently in that condition.]

Understanding the difference matters when you are writing precisely about events versus conditions.

7.6.3 Passive Voice with Modal Verbs

Passive voice can be combined with modal auxiliary verbs. The structure follows: modal + be + past participle.

7.6.4 Impersonal Passive Constructions

English also uses a set of impersonal passive constructions built with verbs of thinking, saying, or reporting. These are especially common in academic and formal writing.

These constructions allow the writer to present information neutrally without committing personally to the claim. They are widely used in scientific papers, legal documents, and news reporting.

7.7 Common Mistakes to Avoid

7.7.1 The Agent Confusion Error

One of the most frequent errors with passive voice is forgetting who the agent is during conversion. When converting active to passive, students sometimes swap the subject and object incorrectly.

7.7.2 Wrong Tense in Passive Formation

When forming the passive, the auxiliary verb be must match the tense of the original active verb. Using the wrong tense of be is a frequent mistake.

7.7.3 Using Passive with Intransitive Verbs

As discussed in Section 7.6.1, intransitive verbs cannot be passivized. Attempting to do so produces an ungrammatical sentence.

7.7.4 Overuse of Passive in Narrative Writing

Some writers overuse passive voice in stories, producing flat, lifeless prose where no one does anything — things simply happen. This drains the energy from a narrative.

7.7.5 The Dangling Agent Problem

When a by-phrase is added but refers to an agent that the sentence structure does not logically support, the result can be confusing or absurd.

7.8 Voice in Different Writing Contexts

The appropriate use of voice varies considerably depending on the writing context. What is standard in a chemistry lab report would be unusual in a newspaper article, and what works in a thriller novel would be out of place in a legal brief. Below is a summary of voice preferences across major writing contexts.

7.9 Summary

Key Points from Chapter 7

1. Voice describes the relationship between a verb and its subject — specifically, whether the subject performs or receives the action.
2. Active voice: Subject (agent) + verb + object. Clear, direct, and preferred for most everyday writing.
3. Passive voice: Subject (recipient) + be + past participle (+ by-phrase, optional). Used when the agent is unknown, irrelevant, or intentionally omitted.
4. Only transitive verbs — those that take objects — can form passive constructions.
5. Passive voice works in all tenses and with modal verbs.
6. Neither voice is inherently correct or superior. Choose based on what your sentence needs to communicate and who your audience is.
7. Avoid passive voice when it creates vagueness, strips out important agents, or weakens a narrative.
8. Prefer active voice for clarity, directness, narrative energy, and accountability.

7.10 Practice Exercises

Exercise A — Identifying Voice

State whether each sentence is in the active voice or the passive voice. If it is passive, identify the by-phrase (if present) and the agent.

1. The architect submitted the revised blueprints to the city council.
2. Three errors were detected in the final draft.
3. The championship trophy was lifted by the captain amid thunderous applause.
4. Every delegate signed the declaration by midnight.
5. The injured climber was rescued by a mountain rescue team from Inverness.
6. The laboratory reported no significant changes in the control group.
7. A new road is being constructed along the northern coast.
8. Heavy rains have flooded the lower valley since Tuesday.

Exercise B — Converting Active to Passive

Rewrite each sentence in the passive voice. Include the by-phrase only where it adds clear value.

1. The publisher will release the novel in September.
2. A team of engineers redesigned the aircraft’s fuselage.
3. The mayor opened the new community centre last Thursday.
4. Someone has stolen my wallet.
5. A volunteer organization planted five hundred trees along the riverbank.
6. The government is reviewing the immigration policy.
7. The professor had graded all the papers before the weekend.
8. An anonymous donor has funded the new wing of the library.

Exercise C — Converting Passive to Active

Rewrite each sentence in the active voice. Where no agent is given, use a suitable general noun or pronoun.

1. The application form must be submitted before the end of the month.
2. The shortlisted candidates will be contacted by our HR department.
3. The data had been corrupted before the backup could be completed.
4. A resolution was passed by the board at its emergency meeting.
5. The old factory is being converted into affordable housing.
6. The treaty was ratified by all twelve member states.
7. It is believed that the manuscript dates to the fifteenth century.
8. The patients are monitored by nurses throughout the night.

Exercise D — Choosing the Right Voice

Each pair of sentences below contains one in active voice and one in passive voice. Choose the more appropriate version for the stated context and explain your reasoning.

1. Context: A newspaper report on a sporting event.
   (a) The final goal was scored in the ninety-fourth minute.
   (b) Forward Dale Whitmore scored the final goal in the ninety-fourth minute.
2. Context: A chemistry lab report on an experiment.
   (a) We heated the solution to 80 degrees and added sodium chloride.
   (b) The solution was heated to 80 degrees, and sodium chloride was added.
3. Context: A company apology letter after a service failure.
   (a) We failed to deliver your order on time, and we sincerely apologize.
   (b) Your order was not delivered on time, and an apology is being offered.

✅ Answer Key

Exercise A — Answers

Exercise B — Sample Answers

1. The novel will be released in September (by the publisher).
2. The aircraft’s fuselage was redesigned by a team of engineers.
3. The new community centre was opened last Thursday.
4. My wallet has been stolen.
5. Five hundred trees were planted along the riverbank.
6. The immigration policy is being reviewed.
7. All the papers had been graded before the weekend.
8. The new wing of the library has been funded by an anonymous donor.

Exercise C — Sample Answers

1. You / Applicants must submit the form before the end of the month.
2. Our HR department will contact the shortlisted candidates.
3. Someone had corrupted the data before the backup could be completed.
4. The board passed a resolution at its emergency meeting.
5. Developers are converting the old factory into affordable housing.
6. All twelve member states ratified the treaty.
7. Scholars believe that the manuscript dates to the fifteenth century.
8. Nurses monitor the patients throughout the night.

Exercise D — Notes

1. Context: newspaper. Sentence (b) is more appropriate. Sports reporting benefits from naming the agent — the goal-scorer is the most important piece of information for readers.
2. Context: chemistry lab report. Sentence (b) is more appropriate. Scientific convention prefers passive voice to keep focus on the procedure, not the individuals performing it.
3. Context: company apology letter. Sentence (a) is more appropriate. An apology carries more weight and sincerity when the company directly owns its failure in active voice. Sentence (b) sounds evasive.

📖 Glossary of Key Terms