Let’s just cut to the chase: passive voice isn’t about the verb form used, it’s about the direction of the action. Is the subject doing the action, or the recipient/object of the action?

Got that? Okay, you’re done—get outta here. Scram. But if you’d like more information on how to identify and correctly use the dreaded passive voice, then stick around. A lot of confusion exists about this subject, and it’s one every writer must master.

Most of the confusion stems from equating passive voice with the verb form. That’s an easy mistake because after all, it’s the verb that describes the action. Verbs are the action. However, we need to delve deeper if we want to recognize passive.

Passive voice is strictly determined by the direction of the action and not the action’s relationship with time, i.e. verb tense and form. So any advice that equates passive voice with the presence of the word “was” is misguided, because it only deals with the verb form, not the direction of the action.

Identifying passive by the presence of the word “was” is akin to identifying plants belonging to the family Graminea, i.e. grass, by the color green. Not all green things are grass. Not all grass is green. It isn’t the color “green” that identifies a specific plant as a member of the Graminea family. It’s a lot of other technical mumbo-jumbo like vascular, rhizomes, culms, etc, that we don’t care about.

Thankfully, identifying passive is a lot easier than identifying grasses. Here is a set of rules that will help you identify passive voice.

Subject is acted upon = passive

Subject is taking the action = active

Key to Passive Voice: Identify who, or what, is doing the action. If the subject of the sentence is performing the action, then it’s active regardless of the verb tense and form used.

He was attacked by a bear at the corner of 5th and Main.

Who is performing the action? The bear.

Who is the object of the action? The man.

Who/what is the subject? The man.

This is passive. The bear performed the action against the subject: the man. This is passive voice using past tense.

Don’t confuse passive voice with verb tense.

Verb tense is action + time. What happened, and when did it happen (past, present, future, etc)?

Passive/active voice is the subject in relation to the action. Is the subject the doer or the recipient(object) of the action? Who did what (active) or who had something done to them (passive)?

She hit him. She is the subject of the sentence. She is doing the action, i.e. she’s doing the hitting, actively (and one might say, aggressively). Active.

He was hit by her. He is the subject of the sentence, but he’s not the one doing the action. He’s the recipient of the action performed by her. So he’s passively accepting a sock to the jaw. Passive.

Example 1 and the word “was”

If you see “was” in combination with a verb ending in “ing” then you’re…just seeing a sentence. You don’t know if it’s passive. The sentence may be past progressive and show a continuous action that happened in the past. This is not passive voice.

Remember: verb tenses indicate not only the action performed, but when—in time—that action occurred.

He was walking. Past progressive, active, not passive. He is the subject of the sentence and he was actively, continuously walking, in the past.

Conversely, if the subject is the object of the action, then it’s passive.

The tray of food was dropped by the waiter. The tray of food is the subject, and it is the recipient of the action. It was dropped by the waiter.

Example 2 and “was” + “ing” verb

He was walking to the store when a bus hit him.

Was walking indicates that he was in the act of walking—continuously walking—when he got hit by a bus. This is not passive voice, and it uses a past progressive verb form. You can think of this verb form in a folksy way as “while progressing to do something,” with the emphasis on progress. Hence, progressive.

And you would not want to “correct” that to remove was. You would not say:

He walked to the store when a bus hit him.

This sentence suffers from temporal distortion because “walked” indicates he had finished walking. The meaning becomes: he walked to the store after the bus hit him. Or maybe he walked to the store because the bus hit him, and he subsequently needed bandages. Either way, it’s a poor choice. You no longer know what the correct timing is, because you used the wrong verb tense in a misguided effort to avoid “was.”

Note, there are two clauses in this sentence and breaking it up may help to understand. There’s the first clause: He was walking to the store. That’s active. Then there’s the second (adverbial) clause, a bus hit him, which is also active.

Clearly, it is not the verb tense that indicates if a sentence is active or passive, because both of those sentences were active.

Examples of Various Verb Tenses + Passive/Active Voice

Here are examples of verb tenses used in sentences constructed using passive voice and active voice. Some of the examples are extremely awkward—sorry about that.

PRESENT - NOW Verb Forms

Present Tense (here and now)

The cart is dragged by her into the woods. Present tense, passive voice: the cart is the subject and recipient of the action.

She drags the cart into the woods. Present tense, active voice: she is the subject and is taking action.

Present Perfect Tense (indefinite time/continues to present)

The verb form uses has/having with the verb's past participle, e.g. ending in -ed.

The cart has been dragged through the woods by her since 2PM. Present tense (continues in the present), passive voice.

A better passive voice example is:
Discrimination has undergone examination for its effect on society since 1960. Present tense (continues in the present), passive voice.

She has dragged the cart through the woods since 2PM. Present tense (continues in the present), active voice

Present Progressive
(continuous action, happening now)

The verb form uses am/is/are with the verb ending in -ing.

The cart is being dragged by her through the woods. Present progressive (continuous action, now), passive voice. Note the state of being verb: "being".

She is dragging the cart through the woods. Present progressive (continuous action, now), active voice.

Present Perfect Progressive
(action began in the past, continues in the present, and may continue into the future).

The verb form uses has/have been + verb ending in -ing.

A transfer of funds has been undergoing consideration by the committee for quite some time. Present perfect progressive (continuous action that may continue in the future), passive voice. (I dropped the “cart” sentence because it was too danged awkward for this example.)

She has been dragging the cart through the woods. Present perfect progressive (continuous action that may continue into the future), active voice.

Another example may make this clearer:
She has been considering quitting her job if her boss doesn’t ease up. Active voice.

FUTURE – in the future

Future Tense

The cart will be dragged by her through the woods. Future tense, passive voice

She will drag the cart through the woods. Future tense, active voice

Future Perfect Tense
(Action occurs in the future before some other action).

The verb form uses will have + past participle of the verb.

The cart will have been dragged into the woods by the time we get there. Future perfect tense, passive voice

She will have dragged the cart into the woods by the time we get there. Future perfect tense, active voice

Future Progressive
(Ongoing, continuous action in the future).

The verb form uses will be + verb ending in -ing.

The cart will be being dragged into the woods by her this afternoon while we are out. Future progressive (continuous action in the future), passive voice.

And active voice:
She will be dragging the cart into the woods this afternoon while we are out. Future progressive (continuous action), active voice.

Future Perfect Progressive
(Ongoing, continuous action that will occur before some future time).

The verb form uses will have been + verb ending in -ing.

By next year, the decision will have been undergoing review for over three years. Future perfect progressive, passive voice. The decision is being reviewed, so it is the recipient of the review. “We” is implied as the entity taking the action. If this was rephrased in active voice, it would be: By next year, we will have been reviewing this decision for over three years.

By the year 3000, doctors will have been treating cancer with radiation therapy for over 1000 years. Future perfect progressive, active voice. The doctors are treating cancer, i.e. the doctors are taking the action against cancer.

PAST – It happened in the past

Past Tense

The cart was dragged into the woods by her. Past tense, passive voice
She dragged the cart into the woods. Past tense, active voice

Past Perfect Tense
(Action took place in past before another past action).

The verb form uses had + past participle of the verb (e.g. ends in -ed).

The cart had been dragged into the woods by her by the time we got there. Past perfect tense, passive voice

She had dragged the cart into the woods by the time we got there. Past perfect tense, active voice

Past Progressive
(action happening when another action occurred).

The verb form uses was + verb ending in -ing.

The cart was being dragged into the woods by her when she saw a bear. Past progressive (continuous, past action), passive voice.

She was dragging the cart into the woods when she saw a bear. Past progressive (continuous, past action), active voice.

Past Perfect Progressive
(continuous action completed before some other past action).

The verb form uses had been + verb ending in -ing.

Before we ended the meeting at 5PM, the recommendation had been undergoing discussion for over three hours. Past Perfect Progressive, passive voice. The recommendation is the subject, and “we” are discussing it. The action is “discussing”.

She had been dragging the cart through the woods or over an hour before we got home. Past perfect progressive (continuous action), active voice.

Conclusion

Now that you understand what passive is, did you know there are times when you want to use passive? Where it can be used to preserve or highlight the focus of the sentence? Further, passive voice can be used very effectively in dialogue to develop a character’s personality and flag certain traits.

Stay tuned for future articles on passive voice, including when to use it and how passive voice can speak volumes about what your characters are up to—or trying to hide.

References:

“The Instant English Handbook” pub: Career Publishing

“Harbrace College Handbook” by John Hodges and Mary Whitten