Passive voice gets a bad reputation because it can hide who did what, and it can feel wordy. But it is not automatically wrong. Like any grammar choice, it depends on what you want readers to notice first.
Passive voice is useful when:
- The actor is unknown. “My bike was stolen last night.”
- The actor is unimportant. “The forms were filed on Tuesday.”
- The actor is obvious from context. In a recipe: “The onions are chopped and added to the pan.”
- You want to spotlight the result. “The window was broken.” The focus is the broken window, not the person who broke it.
Compare these two versions:
- Active: “Someone broke the window.” (focus on an unknown person)
- Passive: “The window was broken.” (focus on the damaged window)
A helpful rule is to choose the voice that matches your goal. If responsibility matters, active voice often wins: “The team missed the deadline.” If the outcome matters more than the actor, passive can be clearer and more natural.
Tip: If passive voice feels vague, you can add the actor with a “by” phrase: “The window was broken by a baseball.”