Secondary 3 · English · Language
Active and passive voice
Recognise active and passive constructions and discuss how the passive voice can hide or downplay who is responsible for an action.
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These lessons were written around Australian Curriculum strands and matched to Singapore levels by age (Primary 1 is the first year of primary school). They are not aligned to MOE syllabuses or the PSLE, so check them against the syllabus your child is working towards.
Learning goals
Learners will
- Recognise active and passive constructions and identify the doer (agent) of an action.
- Convert sentences between the active and passive voice.
- Explain how the passive voice can hide or downplay who is responsible for an action, and when it is a sensible choice.
Success looks like
- I can spot a passive sentence by finding a form of 'to be' plus a past participle.
- I can rewrite a passive sentence in the active voice by naming the doer as the subject.
- I can explain why a writer might use an agentless passive such as 'Mistakes were made.'
The big idea
Every action has a doer (the agent) and often a receiver. The voice of a sentence tells us which one the writer puts first, in the subject position.
In the active voice, the subject does the action: 'The coach cancelled the training session.' The reader knows immediately who acted.
In the passive voice, the receiver becomes the subject and the verb changes to a form of 'to be' (am, is, are, was, were, be, been, being) plus a past participle: 'The training session was cancelled by the coach.' The doer is pushed to the end of the sentence in a 'by…' phrase.
The passive can also drop the doer completely: 'The training session was cancelled.' This is called an agentless passive, and it is where the passive becomes powerful – and sometimes slippery – because the reader is no longer told who is responsible.
A quick test: if you can add 'by someone' after the verb and the sentence still makes sense, it is probably passive. 'The fence was painted (by someone)' works, so it is passive. Be careful: not every sentence containing 'was' is passive. 'She was running' is active (she is doing the running), and 'He was tired' simply describes him.
The passive has honest, sensible uses: when the doer is unknown ('My bike was stolen'), when the doer is obvious or unimportant ('The rubbish is collected on Mondays'), and in scientific reports, where the method matters more than the person ('The water was heated to 80 °C').
However, people and organisations sometimes use the passive to avoid blame. Compare 'We made mistakes' with 'Mistakes were made', or 'The company raised prices' with 'Prices have been raised.' The facts are the same, but the passive versions quietly remove the people responsible.
When you analyse a text, ask: Who did this? Has the writer told me? Why might they leave it out? Then write about the effect: 'The repeated agentless passive ("errors were made", "data was lost") distances the organisation from responsibility.'
Worked examples
Identifying the voice and the agent
Is this sentence active or passive, and who is the agent? 'The winning goal was scored by the youngest player on the team.'
- Look for a form of 'to be' plus a past participle: 'was scored'. That pattern signals the passive.
- Find the subject: 'The winning goal'. The goal did not do anything – it received the action.
- Find the 'by…' phrase: 'by the youngest player on the team'. This names the agent.
Answer: Passive voice. The agent (doer) is 'the youngest player on the team'.
Converting passive to active
Rewrite in the active voice: 'The new rules were announced by the principal on Friday.'
- Identify the agent: 'the principal'. Move the agent into the subject position.
- Change the verb from 'were announced' to the simple past 'announced'.
- Make the old subject ('the new rules') the object and keep any extra detail ('on Friday').
Answer: 'The principal announced the new rules on Friday.'
Analysing responsibility
A company sends this message to customers: 'Last week, some customer passwords were exposed and a number of accounts were accessed.' What effect does the voice have, and how would an active version differ?
- Identify the verbs: 'were exposed' and 'were accessed' are both agentless passives.
- Ask who did the action: the reader is not told who exposed the passwords or who accessed the accounts, or whether the company's security failed.
- Write an active version that names a doer: 'Last week, our security system failed and criminals accessed a number of customer accounts.'
Answer: The agentless passive focuses on the events and hides who was responsible, which makes the company seem less to blame. The active version is clearer and takes responsibility.
Practice check
Have a go, then check your answers. Each answer comes with an explanation.
Answer guide for parents
Which sentence is in the passive voice?
The meal was cooked by the chef. — 'Was cooked' is a form of 'to be' plus a past participle, and the receiver (the meal) is the subject.
Which sentence is in the active voice?
Maya painted the fence. — Maya, the subject, performs the action of painting.
Rewrite in the active voice: 'The cake was eaten by the twins.'
The twins ate the cake. — The agent ('the twins') becomes the subject and 'was eaten' becomes 'ate'.
Who is the agent (the doer) in this sentence? 'The trophy was won by the visiting team.'
the visiting team — The 'by…' phrase names the agent: the visiting team did the winning.
A politician says, 'Mistakes were made.' What is the main effect of this wording?
It avoids saying who made the mistakes. — This agentless passive removes the doer, so no one is named as responsible.
Why might a science report say 'The solution was heated for five minutes' rather than 'I heated the solution for five minutes'?
Because the focus is on the method, not on who carried it out — In scientific writing the passive keeps attention on the process, which anyone could repeat.
'The rules have been changed.' Is this sentence active or passive? (one word)
passive — 'Have been changed' is a form of 'to be' plus a past participle, and no agent is named.
Which sentence is NOT in the passive voice, even though it contains 'was'?
The boy was running to school. — 'Was running' is active: the boy is doing the running. The other sentences use 'to be' plus a past participle (built, deleted, written).
Watch out for
- Thinking any sentence with 'was' or 'were' is passive. The test is a form of 'to be' plus a past participle with the receiver as subject; 'She was laughing' is active.
- Believing the passive voice is always bad writing. It is the right choice when the doer is unknown or unimportant, and it is standard in scientific reports.
- Assuming passive sentences always include 'by…'. Many passives leave the agent out entirely, and these are the ones that most easily hide responsibility.
Tips for parents
- Play 'Who did it?' with notices, news headlines or emails: whenever you spot a passive, ask your learner to name (or guess) the missing doer.
- Use the 'by someone' test together: if 'by someone' fits after the verb, the sentence is probably passive.
- Keep discussions about blame light and balanced – the goal is noticing how language works, not deciding who is guilty.
Go further
- Write a short apology from a café that served the wrong orders twice: one version that takes responsibility (active) and one that avoids it (passive). Discuss which customers would trust more.
- Collect five passive sentences from news reports or official notices. For each, identify whether the agent is given and suggest why the writer chose the passive.
- Rewrite a paragraph of your own writing to remove unnecessary passives, then explain which passives you kept and why.
About 45 minutes
You'll need
- Exercise book
- Two coloured pens or highlighters
- A newspaper article, school newsletter or company notice (optional)
Key words
- Active voice
- A sentence structure in which the subject performs the action: 'The cat knocked over the vase.'
- Passive voice
- A sentence structure in which the subject receives the action: 'The vase was knocked over by the cat.'
- Agent
- The doer of an action. In a passive sentence it appears in a 'by…' phrase, or is left out completely.
- Past participle
- The verb form used after 'has' or 'was', such as broken, written, eaten, made, closed.
- Agentless passive
- A passive sentence with no 'by…' phrase, so the reader is not told who did the action: 'The window was broken.'
Still tricky?
For parents
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