PASSIVE VOICE CHECKER
Paste your text to detect passive voice sentences instantly. Get a passive voice score, highlighted sentences, and active voice suggestions.
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Passive Voice Score
Highlighted Text
Passive voice highlighted in yellow. Click any highlight to see suggestion.
Passive Voice Sentences
How to Fix Passive Voice
Passive Voice Checker — Free Online Tool
A passive voice checker is a writing tool that scans your text and identifies every sentence written in passive voice. It highlights passive constructions, calculates the percentage of passive sentences in your content, and gives you specific suggestions to rewrite them in active voice.
This passive voice checker works instantly in your browser. Paste any text — a blog post, essay, email, product description, or academic paper — and it tells you exactly which sentences are passive, where the passive verb phrases are, and how to fix them. No sign-up, no software, no cost. To check your overall word count and readability alongside passive voice, use our word counter.
Why Passive Voice Matters in Writing
Passive voice is not a grammatical error. But overusing it makes writing feel weak, indirect, and difficult to read. When you check passive voice in your content, you are not just fixing grammar — you are improving how clearly your ideas reach the reader.
In active voice, the subject performs the action: "The team completed the project." In passive voice, the subject receives the action: "The project was completed by the team." Both sentences are correct. But the active version is shorter, clearer, and more direct.
Google's own writing guidelines, Grammarly, Hemingway App, and most professional editors recommend keeping passive voice below 10% of your total sentences. Above that threshold, writing starts to feel bureaucratic and hard to follow.
This passive voice detector helps you stay within that limit by giving you a real-time passive voice percentage and flagging every sentence that needs attention.
How to Use This Passive Voice Checker
Using this tool is simple and takes less than a minute.
The tool counts your words and sentences in real time as you type.
The tool analyses every sentence in your text instantly.
The score shows your passive voice percentage and rates it from Excellent to Very High based on how much passive voice is present.
Every passive construction is highlighted in yellow. Hover over any highlight to see a specific suggestion for that sentence.
The Passive Only tab shows every passive sentence with the passive verb phrase highlighted and a rewriting tip below each one.
Rewrite the flagged sentences in your original document, paste the updated text back in, and click Re-check to confirm your passive voice percentage has improved.
Understanding Your Passive Voice Score
This passive voice checker gives you a score based on the percentage of passive sentences in your text.
Your entire text uses active voice — the strongest possible result.
Most professional writers and style guides consider this acceptable. Your writing is clear and direct.
Still readable, but reviewing the flagged sentences and rewriting a few will make a noticeable difference.
Passive voice is significantly affecting the clarity and engagement of your content. Prioritise rewriting before publishing.
More than one in three of your sentences is passive. Your writing will feel heavy and indirect. Most of the passive sentences in this range should be rewritten in active voice.
Active Voice vs Passive Voice — The Key Difference
Understanding the difference between active and passive voice is the first step to fixing it. A passive voice grammar checker can flag the sentences, but knowing why they are passive helps you rewrite them correctly.
Active Voice
Subject + Verb + ObjectThe subject performs the action.
"The editor reviewed the article."
Shorter, clearer, and more direct. The actor appears at the start.
Passive Voice
Object + To-be + Past ParticipleThe subject receives the action.
"The article was reviewed by the editor."
Takes more words to say the same thing and buries the actor at the end.
The passive version is not wrong — but it takes more words to say the same thing and buries the actor at the end. When the actor matters, active voice is almost always the better choice.
Passive voice is created by combining a form of "to be" (is, are, was, were, been, being) with a past participle (written, made, approved, sent). This passive voice checker detects exactly these patterns across your entire text.
When Passive Voice Is Acceptable
Not all passive voice needs to be removed. A good passive voice detector does not just flag everything — it helps you understand when passive voice is actually the right choice.
"The server was hacked overnight" — you do not know who did it, so passive is appropriate.
"The data was collected over three months" — the collector is less important than the fact that collection happened.
"Einstein was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1921" — Einstein is more important here than "the committee."
"The samples were analysed using gas chromatography" is standard in academic contexts.
In all other cases — especially in blog posts, emails, marketing copy, and business writing — active voice is the better choice. Check passive voice in your text before publishing, and rewrite anything that does not fall into these exceptions.
How This Passive Voice Checker Detects Passive Sentences
This tool uses a pattern-matching engine built entirely in JavaScript — no server, no API, no data sent anywhere.
Detection Patterns
Standard construction: a form of "to be" immediately followed by a past participle. Covers patterns like was written, is known, were approved, and has been sent.
Adverb-separated constructions: was quickly written, is clearly shown, were immediately rejected. Many grammar tools miss these — this checker catches them.
Over 200 irregular past participles (written, known, made, given, taken, shown) plus automatic detection of regular -ed and -en endings.
Filters common false positives — phrases like was going, were talking, and is coming that use the same structure but are not passive voice.
Who Should Use a Passive Voice Checker?
A passive voice checker is useful for anyone who writes for an audience.
Content writers and bloggers use it to ensure their articles are engaging and easy to read.
Academic writers use it to balance formal passive constructions with active clarity.
Business professionals use it to make emails, reports, and proposals more direct and persuasive.
Students use it to improve essays and assignments before submission.
SEO writers use it because clear, active writing tends to have lower bounce rates and better readability scores — both indirect ranking factors.
If you write anything that other people will read, checking passive voice before publishing is a simple habit that consistently improves the quality of your work.