How to Write in Passive Voice (With Examples)

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Learn how to convert active voice into passive voice and vice versa
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English, by default, uses a subject-verb-object word order in sentences. This word order is also called active voice because the subject literally acts on the object. But sometimes, you want to emphasize the object—the thing being acted upon. That means changing the sentence from active voice to passive voice. You don't change the meaning of the sentence, just the focus. Read on for expert advice from English teachers Tristen Bonacci and Diane Stubbs on constructing sentences in active and passive voice.

Changing Active to Passive Voice

  1. Identify the subject and object of the sentence.
  2. Switch the subject and the object.
  3. Add the correct form of "to be" before the main verb.
  4. Change the main verb to its past participle.
  5. Make a prepositional phrase with "by" and the active subject.
Section 1 of 4:

Changing Active Voice to Passive Voice

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  1. An active voice sentence starts with the actor as the subject—this placement emphasizes the actor and makes them the central focus of the sentence. In a passive voice sentence, on the other hand, the focus is on the object being acted upon, so it moves to the first position as the subject of the sentence. Stubbs notes that "you can completely change things around just by what it is that you start with as your subject." [1]
    • For example, "Boys bullied other children on the school bus" is an active sentence. The boys are doing the action of bullying other children (who are the object of their bullying).
    • If you wanted to change the focus of the sentence to the children being bullied, you might use passive voice: "Children on the school bus are being bullied by boys."
  2. With regular verbs, you form the past participle by adding -ed to the end of the verb (-d if the verb already ends in "e"). While regular verbs tend to be the most common, there are irregular verbs with different past participle forms that you just have to memorize as you come into contact with them. [2]
    • The main verb is changed to its past participle for passive voice regardless of the tense of the original sentence.
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  3. Conjugate the verb "to be" to fit with the actor and match the tense of the original active sentence. This essentially means that "to be" is now doing the action in the sentence (with the original main verb describing what is being done to the object) [3]
    • For example, you might say, "The door was blasted open." The word "blasted" is the past participle of the regular verb "blast" while "was" is the singular, past tense form of the verb "to be."
  4. This prepositional phrase tells you who performed the act described by the verb. And as with any prepositional phrase, this whole part can be completely taken out without changing the meaning of the sentence. [4]
    • For example, if you'd received a mysterious unsigned letter, you might say, "The letter was sent to me on November 1st." No need to add "by someone I don't know" or "by someone who didn't sign their name."
  5. Not all sentences will be in a simple tense. You might have auxiliary verbs in the original sentence that you need to port over to your passive sentence as is. [5]
    • If you're writing in a continuous tense, you already have a conjugated form of the verb "to be." In that case, you add the word "being" after the conjugated form. For example, you might say, "Wounded cats were being helped by some neighborhood children."
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Section 2 of 4:

Changing Passive Voice to Active Voice

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  1. To find the actor in a passive voice sentence, look for that prepositional phrase that begins with "by." That tells you who's doing the action and needs to come up to the front and become the subject. The object just moves back to where the actor was. [6]
    • Since passive voice sentences don't always include the "by" phrase with the actor, sometimes you'll have to ask yourself who's performing the action so you know what to make the subject of the sentence.
    • For example, "The suspects were shot on sight" is a passive sentence without a "by" phrase. If it was the police who shot the suspects, your active sentence would read, "The police shot the suspects on sight."
    • If the actor is kind of generic, you can use a subject such as "people" or "folks," unless you can narrow it down further, such as "researchers" or "professionals."
  2. In the active sentence, the main verb once again takes center stage along with the actor. Don't forget to keep it in the same tense as it was in the passive sentence. [7]
    • For example, "The report will be completed by my team before the deadline" would become, "My team will complete the report before the deadline." Note that the word "will" stays, because it's part of the future tense form of the verb "complete."
  3. Now you've got everything back in the more natural, default order for sentences in English, you can get rid of all of those extra words you needed for passive voice. After this, you should be back to the very clean and direct subject-verb-object word order. [8]
    • For example, "The award was given to the winner by the mayor" becomes "The mayor gave the award to the winner."
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Section 3 of 4:

Reasons to Use Passive Voice

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  1. Passive voice might be the only option available when something has happened but you don't know who or what caused it to happen. While you could use a subject such as "someone" in an active voice sentence, it might not be as clear or get the point across as well. [9]
    • For example, if you're talking about a hit-and-run accident, you might say, "My car was T-boned while it was parked in the lot." You don't know who hit your car—the important thing that you're trying to convey is that your car was hit and is damaged.
  2. If the actor could be anybody, passive voice might be more direct than using a word such as "someone" as the subject. The same logic applies when the actors are specific, known people, but their identity isn't important to what you're talking about. [10]
    • For example, if you're talking about nuclear weapons, you might say, "American nuclear devices were first tested in July 1945" to place the emphasis on the testing and leave the specific researchers anonymous (even though they're likely known).
  3. Common sayings are often in passive voice because they're meant to apply to anyone and everyone. It's also typically the case that it doesn't matter who the actor is in these sorts of sayings—they're meant to apply in all instances. [11]
    • For example, in the saying "rules are made to be broken," it doesn't matter who makes the rules because the saying is meant to apply to all rules regardless of who makes them.
  4. Essentially, people switch from active voice to passive voice when they want to avoid the actor facing any responsibility. As Bonacci points out, "most people will find a passive voice when they're reading legal material, because the idea is that you don't want to take responsibility for your actions." [12]
    • For example, if you said, "I threw the ball through the window," that would be an active sentence because you're "taking the action, and taking responsibility for that action," Bonacci continues. "But if you said... 'the ball was thrown through the window.' Well, someone had to do it. So how did it happen?" [13]
    • Passive voice is also common in biased news reporting that wants to emphasize the object over the actor.
  5. In some situations, the object and what happened to it is legitimately more important than who the actor is, so you want that to be the focus of the sentence. Writing in active voice in this situation can detract from that. [14]
    • For example, if you're writing about the destruction of a historic building that had fallen into disrepair, you might write, "After all efforts to save the old chapel failed, it was demolished." It doesn't matter who specifically demolished the building.
  6. Traditionally, academic journals favor scientific articles written in passive voice because the researcher isn't supposed to matter. The logic behind this policy is that since a proper scientific experiment can be replicated by anyone, the focus should be on what's done, not who's doing it. [15]
    • This is changing, though. As of 2024, most academic journals accept and publish articles written in active voice as well as articles written in passive voice.
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Section 4 of 4:

Understanding English Verb Tenses

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  1. Use the present tense form of a verb if you're talking about an action happening right at this very moment. There are different types of present tense, depending on how long the action has been going on and whether it continues to go on. Here's how they're formed: [16]
    • Present simple: subject + verb; "He writes."
    • Present continuous: subject + form of "to be" + (verb + -ing); "He is writing."
    • Present perfect: subject + have/has + past participle of the verb; "He has written."
    • Present perfect continuous: subject + have/has + been + (verb + -ing); "He has been writing."
  2. Use the past tense of a verb if you're talking about an action that happened in the past. Just like with the present tense, there are different forms depending on how long the action was happening. Here's how you make them: [17]
    • Past simple: subject + (verb + -ed if the verb is regular); "He wrote."
    • Past continuous: subject + was/were + (verb + -ing); "He was writing."
    • Past perfect: subject + had + past participle of the verb; "He had written."
    • Past perfect continuous: subject + had + been + (verb + -ing); "He had been writing."
  3. Use the future tense of a verb if you're talking about an action that hasn't happened yet but will happen at some point in the future. As with the past and present tenses, there are different forms to indicate whether the act occurs completely in the future or is ongoing. Here's how they're made: [18]
    • Future simple: subject + will + verb; "He will write."
    • Future continuous: subject + will + be + (verb + -ing); "He will be writing."
    • Future perfect: subject + will + have + past participle of the verb; "He will have written."
    • Future perfect continuous: subject + have + been + (verb + -ing); "He will have been writing."
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Practice Sentences and Answers

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  • Question
    How do you write in passive voice?
    Richard Perkins
    Writing Coach
    Richard Perkins is a Writing Coach, Academic English Coordinator, and the Founder of PLC Learning Center. With over 24 years of education experience, he gives teachers tools to teach writing to students and works with elementary to university level students to become proficient, confident writers. Richard is a fellow at the National Writing Project. As a teacher leader and consultant at California State University Long Beach's Global Education Project, Mr. Perkins creates and presents teacher workshops that integrate the U.N.'s 17 Sustainable Development Goals in the K-12 curriculum. He holds a BA in Communications and TV from The University of Southern California and an MEd from California State University Dominguez Hills.
    Richard Perkins
    Writing Coach
    Expert Answer
    Well, word choices are everything! Try to describe actions with more powerful synonyms whenever possible. For example, "The boy heard a loud sound and became scared" is an okay sentence, but "The explosion rocketed the room and the boy hid under his bed" sounds better. Why? Because the word explosion makes it loud and tells me it is dangerous.
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    Not Helpful 8 Helpful 16
  • Question
    What is the passive voice of; "Mark changes the flat tire?"
    Community Answer
    "The flat tire is changed by Mark" would be the passive version of that sentence.
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  • Question
    How do I change, "The teacher will correct the papers"?
    Community Answer
    "The papers will be corrected by the teacher" is the passive voice of this sentence.
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      References

      1. ↑ Diane Stubbs. Secondary English Teacher. Expert Interview. Tuesday, April 12, 2022.
      2. ↑ https://www.fordham.edu/academics/academic-resources/writing-center/writing-resources/grammar/active-and-passive-voice/
      3. ↑ https://www.fordham.edu/academics/academic-resources/writing-center/writing-resources/grammar/active-and-passive-voice/
      4. ↑ https://www.fordham.edu/academics/academic-resources/writing-center/writing-resources/grammar/active-and-passive-voice/
      5. ↑ https://www.hunter.cuny.edu/rwc/repository/files/grammar-and-mechanics/verb-system/Active-and-Passive-Voice.pdf
      6. ↑ https://writing.wisc.edu/handbook/ccs_activevoice/
      7. ↑ https://www.montana.edu/writingcenter/writing_resources/active-and-passive-voice.html
      8. ↑ https://www.montana.edu/writingcenter/writing_resources/active-and-passive-voice.html
      9. ↑ https://advice.writing.utoronto.ca/revising/passive-voice/
      1. ↑ https://www.montana.edu/writingcenter/writing_resources/active-and-passive-voice.html
      2. ↑ https://advice.writing.utoronto.ca/revising/passive-voice/
      3. ↑ Tristen Bonacci. English Teacher. Expert Interview. 21 December 2021.
      4. ↑ Tristen Bonacci. English Teacher. Expert Interview. 21 December 2021.
      5. ↑ https://advice.writing.utoronto.ca/revising/passive-voice/
      6. ↑ https://advice.writing.utoronto.ca/revising/passive-voice/
      7. ↑ https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/grammar/english-grammar-reference/present-tense
      8. ↑ https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/grammar/english-grammar-reference/past-tense
      9. ↑ https://www.thesaurus.com/e/grammar/future-tense-verbs/

      About This Article

      Article Summary X

      To change a sentence from active to passive voice, start by moving the object to the beginning of the sentence. Then, add the auxiliary verb “be” prior to the main verb, which will emphasize how the object is acted on. For example, if the original sentence is “He will write the letter,” you should make it “A letter will be written by him.” Take care to keep the same tense when you switch a sentence from active to passive voice. If the original sentence is “The cat kills the mice,” the correct passive voice would be “The mice are killed by the cat,” not “The mice were being killed by the cat.” For tips on when it’s OK to use the passive voice and when to avoid it, keep reading!

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