Passive Voice Detector
Paste your text to highlight passive voice sentences and see your passive rate.
Passive Voice Rate Guide
- < 5%Excellent
- 5–10%Good
- 10–20%Moderate
- > 20%High
Quick Tips
- • Identify the action and who performs it
- • Move the actor to the subject position
- • Use strong, active verbs
- • Some passive voice is acceptable in science writing
Frequently Asked Questions
Passive voice occurs when the subject of a sentence receives the action rather than performing it. For example, 'The essay was written by the student' is passive. The active version is 'The student wrote the essay.' Active voice is generally clearer and more direct.
No. Passive voice is acceptable and sometimes preferred in scientific writing, when the actor is unknown or unimportant (e.g., 'The sample was heated to 100°C'), or when you want to emphasize the object of the action. The goal is to use it intentionally, not by default.
Most writing guides recommend keeping passive voice below 10–15% of sentences. Academic writing varies by discipline — science and engineering tend to use more passive voice than humanities. If your passive rate is above 20%, consider revising key sentences.
This tool uses a pattern-matching approach to identify common passive voice constructions: a form of 'to be' (is, are, was, were, be, been, being) followed by a past participle (a word ending in -ed or -en). It may not catch all passive constructions or may flag some false positives.
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