Passive Voice

The active voice

The active voice occurs when you use the following simple sentence construction:

subject + active verb + object

Here are some examples of active voice sentences:

• I bought a camera
• That seagull stole my sandwich
• I made mistakes

The passive voice

The passive voice, on the other hand, occurs when you structure it this way:

subject + auxiliary verb + main verb

Here’s what these sentences look like with the passive voice:

• A camera was bought by me
• My sandwich was stolen by that seagull
• Mistakes were made by me

As you can see, a lot of the action is now missing from these sentences. The passive voice can also remove the subject entirely and still make sense:

• A camera was bought
• My sandwich was stolen
• Mistakes were made

Passive voice conjugation

The passive voice requires conjugation of the verb ‘to be’:

• Is
• Is being
• Was
• Was being
• Has been
• Had been
• Will be 
• Will be being
• Would be
• Would have been
• Must be 

The function of passive voice

Stylistic advantages and disadvantages aside, here are the main two functions of passive voice:

• To convey reasonable doubt or uncertainty
• To distance oneself from an action

The passive voice is most often used in academic papers or in legal writing. Generally speaking, it has a formal tone. It is used to express an interest in the object rather than the subject of a sentence. For example, ‘mistakes were made’ implies the focal point of the sentence is the mistake, and not the person who made it.