Change Passive Voice to Active Voice

When a sentence is written, it can either be written in active voice or passive voice. In most cases, writing sentences in passive voice is discouraged because it can obscure the subject of the sentence, and confuse the reader. It also usually creates a wordy and awkward sentence construction.

Defining Passive Voice

Every sentence contains, at minimum, a subject and an action. The subject is the person or thing the sentence is about, and the action is what the subject is doing. When a sentence is in active voice, the subject doing the action comes before the action.  For example:

• I swim. I is the subject. Swim is the action. The subject doing the action comes before the action, so it is immediately clear to the reader who is doing what.

When a sentence is in passive voice, the subject comes after the action. For example:

• Swimming is something I do. Here, the action is swimming. The subject is I. The sentence is in passive voice, since the person doing the action (I) is not mentioned until after the action

Some sentences also contain objects- the thing being acted upon. This can make it more difficult to determine whether the sentence is in passive voice. For example, here is a sentence in active voice:

• Anna hits the ball. Anna is the subject. Hits is the action. The ball is the object.

That same sentence in passive voice reads:

• The ball is hit by Anna.

• The ball is the object- not the subject of the sentence. The ball is not doing an action. Therefore, it should be after the subject (Anna)

Tips to Recognize the Passive Voice

Sometimes a sentence in passive voice does not necessarily sound "wrong" or wordy. However, it is still best to write in active voice when possible.

In order to recognize that a sentence is in passive voice, watch out for these keywords:

• Be
• Is
• Are
• A
• Was
• Were
• Has been
• Have been
• Will be
• Being

How to Change Passive Voice to Active Voice

In order to change passive voice to active voice, you need to recognize what the subject of the sentence is and then rewrite the sentence so the subject is before the object.

Lets use the following example to understand how to change passive voice to active voice:

Extensive training on the new safety procedures was required to be attended by the maintenance staff. 

We can recognize that this sentence is in passive voice because the keyword was is used, and because it is not initially clear who or what this sentence is about. In order to correct the sentence:

Step One: Identify the subject of the sentence - who is doing an action? The training is not doing an action, so it can't be the subject. The only person or thing doing an action here is the maintenance staff. They are attending training. So, the maintenance staff is the subject of the sentence.

Step Two: Rewrite the sentence so the subject is before the action and object. This sentence could be rewritten to active voice as follows:

The maintenance staff was required to attend extensive training on the new safety procedures.

This rewrite makes it immediately clear to the reader who is doing what. The subject comes before the action. 

Practice Changing Passive to Active Voice

Correct the following five sentences to practice changing passive to active voice. The answers are below:

1. Hunger was what Bill felt.
2. Reading is enjoyed by Mary
3. The town was destroyed by fire
4. Funny is what clowns are
5. Cheese was liked by Sara

Answers to Practice Sentences

1. Bill felt hungry (Bill is the subject, felt is the action)
2. Mary enjoys reading (Mary is the subject, enjoys is the action)
3. Fire destroyed the town (Fire is the subject, destroyed is the action)
4. Clowns are funny (Clowns is the subject, funny is the action)
5. Sara likes cheese (Sara is the subject, likes is the action)