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Passive voice checker and passive to active voice converter
Find passive voice in your writing and get an active rewrite for every sentence that needs one.
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Paste up to 1,500 characters and this passive voice checker lists each passive sentence, shows the words that make it passive and offers an active rewrite. It also tells you which passives are fine to keep for the kind of writing you are doing.
Passive voice vs active voice
In the active voice the subject does the action: 'The pitcher threw the ball.' In the passive voice the subject receives it: 'The ball was thrown by the pitcher.' A passive verb is built from a form of 'be' (is, are, was, were, been, being) plus a past participle such as thrown, written or made. The doer can follow in a 'by' phrase or be left out entirely, as in 'Mistakes were made.' Informal English also forms passives with 'get', as in 'He got fired.'
What a passive voice detector should not flag
Not every 'was' or 'were' is passive. 'She was tired' is 'be' plus an adjective describing a state. 'He was running' is the past continuous, and it is active because he is doing the running. 'They have finished' is a perfect tense, also active. Simple checkers that flag every form of 'be' produce many false alarms. This tool is told to skip these patterns and to leave out sentences it is unsure about.
How to fix passive voice
Find who or what does the action and make it the subject. 'The form was signed by the manager' becomes 'The manager signed the form.' Keep the tense the same. If the sentence never says who acted, you have to supply it: 'The window was broken' becomes 'Someone broke the window', or names the person if you know. The converter uses placeholders like [someone] in that case, because only you know the real answer.
When passive voice is the right choice
Passive voice is not an error. It is the natural choice when the actor is unknown ('My bike was stolen'), when the actor does not matter ('The bridge was built in 1932'), and when the receiver is the point of the sentence ('The mayor was arrested'). Scientific methods sections often use it to keep the focus on the procedure. Style guides mostly advise preferring the active voice where it is clearer and more direct, not banning the passive. Choose the type of writing before you run the check so the advice fits, and read each rewrite in context before accepting it.
Questions
Is passive voice grammatically wrong?
No. It is correct English. Writers are advised to limit it because active sentences are usually shorter and make clear who did what.
How do I spot passive voice myself?
Look for a form of 'be' followed by a past participle, and ask whether the subject is receiving the action. If you can add 'by someone' after the verb and the sentence still makes sense, it is probably passive.
Does the checker catch every passive sentence?
It is an AI check, so it can miss a passive or flag a sentence wrongly now and then. Use it as a second pair of eyes and make the final call yourself.
How much text can I check at once?
Up to 1,500 characters per run, about one or two paragraphs. Check longer documents a section at a time.
What can I do after fixing the passive sentences?
If a paragraph feels thin after editing, the Sentence and Paragraph Expander can develop it. To practice the grammar itself, the English Tutor assistant can explain active and passive voice with exercises.
Is the passive voice checker free?
Yes, it is free to use.