What counts as passive voice?

Passive voice occurs when a form of "to be" (is, are, was, were, be, been, being) is followed by a past participle (a verb ending in -ed or an irregular past participle). For example, "The report was written by Jane" is passive; "Jane wrote the report" is active.

How much passive voice is acceptable?

Most style guides recommend keeping passive voice below 10–15% of sentences. Scientific and legal writing often uses more passive voice intentionally. The right amount depends on your audience and purpose.

Does the tool send my text to a server?

No. All analysis runs entirely in your browser using JavaScript. Your text is never transmitted anywhere.

Why might passive voice be intentional?

Passive voice is appropriate when the actor is unknown ("The window was broken"), when the actor is less important than the action, or in scientific writing to maintain objectivity ("Samples were collected at dawn").

Can this tool convert passive to active voice automatically?

No — automatic conversion requires understanding sentence meaning and identifying the implied agent, which is beyond what a pattern-based tool can reliably do. The highlights guide you to rewrite those sentences manually.

Passive Voice Detector

Paste your text to instantly highlight passive voice constructions and see what percentage of your sentences use passive voice.

Your Text

0 characters

Analysis Summary

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Sentences

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Passive

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% Passive

Passive voice ratio —

Highlighted Result

Passive phrases in yellow

Your analyzed text will appear here with passive phrases highlighted.

Summary

The Passive Voice Detector scans your text for passive voice constructions — sentences where the subject receives the action rather than performing it. It highlights each passive phrase inline and calculates the percentage of sentences that use passive voice. Strong, direct writing typically keeps passive voice below 10%.

How it works

Paste or type your text into the input box.
Click "Analyze" (or text is analyzed automatically as you type).
Passive voice phrases are highlighted in yellow within your text.
The summary panel shows total sentences, passive sentence count, and passive voice percentage.
Review highlighted phrases and rewrite them in active voice for cleaner prose.

Use cases

Improve academic essays by reducing passive constructions.
Strengthen marketing copy and calls-to-action.
Review technical documentation for clarity and directness.
Check blog posts and articles before publishing.
Prepare business reports with a confident, active tone.
Help ESL writers spot passive patterns in their drafts.

Frequently Asked Questions

Last updated: 2026-05-23 · Reviewed by Nham Vu