Passive Voice Detector
Paste your text to find passive voice sentences. Each is highlighted so you can rewrite it in active voice.
Passive sentences found
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Passive Voice Detector — Spot Weak Sentences in Any Text
Passive voice weakens writing. "The report was written by the team" is passive. "The team wrote the report" is active — shorter, clearer, stronger. This detector scans your text for passive constructions (forms of "to be" followed by a past participle) and highlights each one so you can rewrite.
When passive voice is OK
- When the actor is unknown or irrelevant: "The package was delivered Monday."
- In scientific writing where the method, not the researcher, matters.
- When you deliberately want to soften responsibility: "Mistakes were made."
Target: under 10% passive
Most style guides suggest keeping passive voice below 10% of sentences. Journalism and copywriting push even lower — 5% or less. Academic writing may run higher. Aim for the lowest percentage that still reads naturally.
This detector uses a heuristic (be-verb + past participle). It flags most true passive sentences but can occasionally mis-flag constructions like "is interested in." Use judgment. Pair it with the readability checker and sentence length analyzer.