To show interest in the person or object that experiences an action rather than the person or object that performs the action.Reasons to use the passive voiceĪlthough the active voice is usually the preferred choice, there are sometimes good reasons to use the passive voice: Rewrite the sentence so that the subject in the 'by' phrase is closer to the beginning of the sentence.įor example:‘The exam was passed by the pupil’ would change to ‘The pupil passed the exam’. One way to avoid using the passive voice is to look for a ‘by’ phrase. Who scored the goal? Doesn’t the writer know? Converting sentences to active voice Passive sentences can cause confusion because they can be vague about who is responsible for the action. Active: The teacher collected the books.Passive: The books were collected by the teacher.Using the active voice in a sentence often means less words are used than in the passive voice.
