Passive Voice Detector
Paste your text and instantly see every passive voice construction highlighted in amber. Get a passive percentage score, a sentence-level list of all passive constructions, and rewriting suggestions for each one. Fully private — all processing happens in your browser with no signup required.
Passive voice constructions will be highlighted in amber as you type.
Aim for under 15% passive sentences for clear writing.
Why Use Our Passive Voice Detector?
Instant Real-Time Detection
Passive voice constructions are highlighted in amber as you type — no button to press, no delay. The passive voice detector updates on every keystroke for immediate feedback.
Visual Highlighting & Suggestions
Every passive construction is highlighted directly in your text and listed below with the surrounding sentence. Click any item to see a rewriting suggestion for that specific phrase.
100% Private — No Upload
All analysis happens locally in your browser. Your text never leaves your device and is never sent to any server — safe for confidential documents, client work, and academic writing.
Free & No Limits
Analyse unlimited text with no signup, no subscription, and no usage caps. The passive voice detector is completely free forever with no ads blocking the interface.
Common Use Cases for Passive Voice Detector
Academic Writing & Essays
Students and academics use the passive voice detector to meet style guide requirements. Many journals and professors require active voice — detect and fix passive constructions before submission.
Business & Professional Writing
Business writers use the passive voice detector to make reports, emails, and proposals more direct and authoritative. Active voice communicates confidence and clarity in professional contexts.
Job Applications & CVs
Job seekers use the passive voice detector to strengthen CVs and cover letters. Active voice ("I led the project") is more impactful than passive ("The project was led by me") in applications.
SEO & Content Marketing
Content writers use the passive voice detector to improve readability scores and engagement. Active voice keeps readers engaged and reduces bounce rates on blog posts and landing pages.
Fiction & Creative Writing
Authors use the passive voice detector to identify weak constructions in their prose. While passive voice has its place in fiction, overuse creates distance between the reader and the action.
Editing & Proofreading
Editors and proofreaders use the passive voice detector as a first-pass tool to flag potential rewrites. The highlighted output and sentence-level list make it fast to review and revise.
Understanding Passive Voice
What is Passive Voice?
Passive voiceoccurs when the subject of a sentence receives the action rather than performing it. In passive constructions, a form of the verb “to be” (am, is, are, was, were, be, been, being) is combined with a past participle. For example: “The report was writtenby Sarah” is passive, while “Sarah wrotethe report” is active. Our passive voice detector identifies these constructions instantly and highlights them so you can decide whether to rewrite them.
How Our Passive Voice Detector Works
- Paste or upload your text: Add your essay, article, report, or any document into the input panel. The passive voice detector accepts plain text and text files.
- Instant browser-based detection: The tool scans each sentence for the pattern [to be verb] + [optional adverb] + [past participle]. Matches are highlighted in amber in the output panel and listed below with the surrounding sentence. All processing runs locally in your browser — your text never leaves your device.
- Review and rewrite: Click any highlighted construction in the list to see a rewriting suggestion. The passive percentage score helps you gauge how much passive voice is in your text — aim for under 15% for most writing styles.
What the Passive Voice Detector Identifies
- Standard passive constructions:“was written”, “is being reviewed”, “were approved”, “has been completed”.
- Adverb-modified passives:“was carefully reviewed”, “is frequently updated”, “were quickly resolved”.
- Irregular past participles:“was given”, “were told”, “is known”, “was built”, “were chosen”.
- Regular -ed past participles:“was completed”, “were submitted”, “is scheduled”, “was published”.
When Passive Voice is Acceptable
Passive voice is not always wrong. It is appropriate when the actor is unknown (“The window was broken”), when the actor is less important than the action (“The vaccine was developed in 2020”), or in scientific writing where the focus is on the process rather than the researcher. Use the passive percentage as a guide — a score under 15% is generally considered acceptable for most writing styles.
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Frequently Asked Questions About Passive Voice Detector
A passive voice detector is a writing tool that scans text for passive voice constructions — sentences where the subject receives the action rather than performing it. It identifies patterns like "was written", "were approved", and "is being reviewed" and highlights them so you can decide whether to rewrite them in active voice.
The tool scans each sentence for the pattern: a form of "to be" (am, is, are, was, were, be, been, being) followed by an optional adverb and a past participle (words ending in -ed, -en, or common irregular forms like "given", "written", "built"). This covers the vast majority of passive voice constructions in English.
Yes. The passive voice detector processes everything 100% client-side in your browser. Your text never leaves your device and is never sent to any external server. You can safely analyse confidential documents, client work, and academic papers without any privacy concerns.
Yes. The tool is 100% free with no signup required, no premium features, and no usage limits. Analyse unlimited text without any restrictions or hidden costs.
Most style guides recommend keeping passive voice below 10–15% of your sentences. Academic writing often allows slightly more. The passive percentage score in the tool gives you an instant gauge — aim for green (0%) or amber (under 15%) rather than red (over 15%).
No. Passive voice is appropriate when the actor is unknown ("The window was broken"), when the actor is less important than the action ("The vaccine was developed in 2020"), or in scientific writing where the focus is on the process. Use the detector to identify passive constructions and then decide case by case whether to rewrite them.
Yes. Click any passive construction in the list below the editor to see a rewriting suggestion. The suggestion prompts you to identify who performs the action and make them the subject of the sentence — the most reliable way to convert passive to active voice.
The passive voice detector is designed for English text. It uses English "to be" verb forms and English past participle patterns. It will not reliably detect passive voice in other languages.
No. The passive voice detector processes text locally in your browser with no arbitrary limits. You can analyse short paragraphs or long documents without any performance issues.