Active voice vs. passive voice
Distinguishing between active voice and passive voice is easy: if the subject of the sentence acts, the verb is an the active voice; if the subject of the sentence is acted upon, the verb is in the passive voice. For example, the sentence, I kissed Sheila, is in the active voice because the subject (I) acts (kissed) upon the object of the verb (Sheila). The sentence, I was kissed by Sheila, is in the passive voice because the subject is being acted upon.
Forming the passive voice
The passive voice is almost always formed by placing some form of the verb to be in front of the verb’s past participle. So, for example, I own the book becomes The book is owned by me. In colloquial contexts, to get sometimes takes place of to be—for example, I got kissed by Sheila.
When the subject of a sentence is followed by a to be verb, it doesn’t automatically signal passive voice. Some sentences can be deceptive—for example, in the sentence, The street is cracked, the past-participle verb cracked denotes an adjective rather than an action, so the sentence is in the active voice.
Voice only applies to verbs that are transitive—that is, verbs that have direct objects. For example, the intransitive verb wait cannot shift into passive voice because it cannot apply directly to the subject of a sentence. Try it—it doesn’t work. (Of course, many intransitive verbs can become transitive with prepositions, in which cases the verbs may be take the passive voice—for example, I was waited on by the tall server.)
When the passive voice is used in a dependent clause, the to be can sometimes be dropped. For example, in the sentence, I bought the book recommended to me by Sheila, the phrase that was is implied between book and the dependent clause recommended to me by Sheila. The same sentence with the dependent clause in the active voice might read, I bought the book Sheila recommended.
When to use passive voice
Most style guides recommend against using passive voice wherever you can avoid it. There are three main reasons for this: 1) passive voice is usually wordier than active voice; 2) without the extra words, passive voice fails to say who performed the action, which can hide responsibility (e.g., Shots were fired.); 3) passive-voice sentences are harder to parse, requiring a longer processing time in the reader’s mind.
Although active voice is usually superior for getting information across, there are times when the passive voice is advantageous, such as when you need to hide the actor’s identity or when the identity of the actor is not important. In other cases, you may wish to shift focus to the thing being acted upon, or you may feel that the passive voice simply sounds better.
