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Instantly detect and highlight passive voice constructions in your writing. Improve clarity, style, and readability with our free browser-based passive voice checker.
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Check the highlighted sentences and rewrite passive constructions to active voice.
The Passive Voice Detector scans your text for passive constructions — sentences where the subject receives the action rather than performs it. It highlights "to be" verbs paired with past participles so you can quickly spot and rewrite them.
Passive voice occurs when the subject of a sentence receives the action rather than performs it. Example: "The report was written by John" (passive) vs. "John wrote the report" (active). Passive constructions typically use a form of "to be" + past participle.
Most style guides recommend keeping passive voice below 10% of your sentences. 10–20% is borderline acceptable depending on the genre. Academic and scientific writing sometimes requires more passive voice, but business and general writing benefits from staying under 10%.
No — passive voice is a valid grammatical construction that serves specific purposes. It's useful when the actor is unknown ("The window was broken"), irrelevant, or when you want to emphasize the receiver of the action. The goal is intentional use, not elimination.
No. All analysis happens entirely in your browser using JavaScript. Your text never leaves your device and is never sent to any server. This tool is 100% private and safe for sensitive content.
The tool uses pattern matching to find common passive constructions: forms of "to be" (is, are, was, were, be, been, being) followed by a past participle (words ending in -ed, -en, -t, -n, -d). It also recognizes irregular past participles like written, broken, and gone.
Identify the actor (often in a "by ..." phrase or implied) and make it the subject. "The cake was eaten by Tom" → "Tom ate the cake." If there's no clear actor, consider whether passive voice is actually appropriate in that sentence.
A passive voice detector is a writing tool that scans your text and identifies sentences constructed in the passive voice — where the grammatical subject receives the action rather than performs it. By highlighting these constructions, the tool helps writers understand the ratio of passive to active sentences and pinpoint exactly which sentences need revision.
Our free online passive voice checker analyzes your entire text in milliseconds, color-coding passive constructions so they stand out visually. Whether you're polishing a cover letter, editing a blog post, or reviewing academic writing, this tool gives you an instant snapshot of your writing's voice profile.
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Passive voice is formed by combining a form of the verb "to be" with a past participle. The key forms of "to be" include: is, am, are, was, were, be, been, and being. The past participle is the third form of a verb — in regular verbs, this ends in -ed (walked, written, approved), but irregular verbs have their own forms (broken, gone, taken, written).
Consider these examples:
Notice how active voice sentences are typically shorter, clearer, and more direct. They place the actor at the front, making it immediately obvious who is doing what.
Passive voice isn't inherently wrong — it's a legitimate grammatical structure with specific valid uses. Knowing when to use it (and when to avoid it) is what separates skilled writers from beginners.
Use passive voice when:
Avoid passive voice when:
The basic formula for converting passive to active voice is: find the actor (often in a "by ..." phrase), move it to the front, and restructure the verb.
Step 1: Identify the subject, verb, and object.
"The report was reviewed by the manager." → Subject: report, Verb: was reviewed, Actor: manager
Step 2: Make the actor the new subject.
"The manager" → now the subject.
Step 3: Use the active verb form.
"The manager reviewed the report." ✓
When there's no "by ..." phrase, consider: who logically performed this action? If you can name them, use active voice. If genuinely unknown or irrelevant, passive may be appropriate.
The appropriate passive voice percentage depends on your writing context. Here are general benchmarks:
Academic writing (especially in science and medicine) traditionally tolerates higher passive rates — sometimes 30–40% — because of conventions around objectivity and impersonal reporting. But even in academic contexts, clearer writing often uses active voice where appropriate.
Beyond style, active voice has practical implications for content performance. Readability scores — including Flesch-Kincaid and Gunning Fog — reward shorter, simpler sentences. Active voice naturally produces shorter sentences, directly boosting readability scores.
For SEO, Google's Natural Language Processing algorithms analyze text quality and coherence. Content written clearly and directly tends to match search intent more precisely and satisfy readers faster — reducing bounce rates and increasing time-on-page, both positive ranking signals.
Email open rates and click-through rates also correlate with writing clarity. Subject lines and CTAs written in active voice consistently outperform passive alternatives in A/B tests.
After analyzing thousands of texts, certain passive constructions appear repeatedly. Watch for these common patterns in your writing:
Each of these passive constructions can be rewritten in seconds — and each revision makes your writing more direct, accountable, and engaging for your reader.