I was given flowers by someone.
Someone gave me flowers.
Do you know which sentence uses the passive verb form?
Passive voice vs. active voice
The first sentence above is an example of the passive voice. This is when the subject of the sentence is not the cause of the action. Who or what caused the action may not be very important.
Look at this chart comparing the passive voice and active voice in a few common verb tenses.
| Verb Tense | Active | Passive |
| Present simple | Architects design buildings. | Buildings are designed by architects. |
| Present perfect | The government has created a new law. | A new law has been created by the government. |
| Past simple | The city started a new initiative. | A new initiative was started by the city. |
Forming the passive
The passive is formed like this: subject + to be + past participle
Why use the passive voice?
The passive voice can be useful when the we want to shift the focus of the sentence to the object because it is more important than the „actor“; or perhaps we don’t know who did the action.
It can also be useful to use the passive voice in formal or scientific writing. Sometimes it is more important to highlight the methods or the research done, rather than those doing the research.
In a business context, the passive voice can be used to „soften“ your language when pointing out something negative. Instead of saying Mark made a mistake, it can be more diplomatic to say A mistake was made and we intend to fix it.
However, if you want to be clear, simple and direct, the active voice might be the better choice!