B1Passive

Active vs passive voice

Choose active voice when the doer matters and passive voice when the receiver, process or result is more important.

Overview

What this grammar does

Choose active voice when the doer matters and passive voice when the receiver, process or result is more important.

Form and rules

How it works

Active voice foregrounds the agent: Researchers discovered the error.

Passive voice foregrounds the receiver/result: The error was discovered.

Use passive when the agent is unknown, obvious, general or deliberately unimportant.

Use by + agent only when identifying the agent adds useful information.

Formal, scientific and process descriptions often use passive, but active voice is usually clearer when the agent is important.

A closer look

Meaning and use

Use by + agent only when identifying the agent adds useful information.

Formal, scientific and process descriptions often use passive, but active voice is usually clearer when the agent is important.

Examples

See the pattern in complete sentences

The company launched the product in May.

The product was launched in May.

Someone stole my bike.

My bike was stolen last night.

The novel was written by Toni Morrison.

Common mistakes

What to avoid

Choose the better focus: We don't know who broke the window. → A person broke the window and we don't know them.

Choose the better focus: We don't know who broke the window. → The window was broken last night.

Passive is natural when the agent is unknown.

When the researcher is important, which is clearer? → The new method was discovered, with no agent.

When the researcher is important, which is clearer? → Dr. Lee discovered the new method.

Active voice keeps the important agent in focus.

Ready to practise?

The test combines multiple choice, gap completion, error correction, and sentence building so students have to recognise and produce the grammar, not simply reread the rule.