What counts as passive voice?

Passive voice is when the subject receives the action instead of performing it, formed by a 'to be' verb (is, was, were, been, being) plus a past participle, as in 'the form was submitted'. The active equivalent puts the actor first: 'you submitted the form'.

Is passive voice always wrong?

No. Passive voice is fine when the actor is unknown or irrelevant ('the road was resurfaced'). The goal of plain-language editing is to reduce unnecessary passives that hide who must act, which matters most in notices and instructions.

How does the detector work without a grammar API?

It tokenises each sentence, finds forms of 'to be', and checks whether a past participle follows within a short window, allowing adverbs and 'not' in between. Regular '-ed' participles plus a built-in list of irregular participles are matched.

Will it catch every passive and never misfire?

No rule-based detector is perfect. It can miss unusual constructions and occasionally flag an adjective that looks like a participle ('was tired'). Treat the highlights as prompts for human review, not a final verdict.

Is my text sent anywhere?

No. All parsing and highlighting happen in your browser. The text never leaves your device, so you can safely check confidential notices, contracts, or internal drafts.

What is the Passive Voice Highlighter?

Detects passive-voice constructions in English text with a rule-based parser that pairs forms of 'to be' with past participles, then highlights each instance inline and flags by-phrases. Compliance and editorial teams use it to simplify notices that must be readable to the general public. It runs free in your browser on Gera Tools, with nothing uploaded.

Passive Voice Highlighter

Name: Passive Voice Highlighter
Creator: Gera Tools
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

The Passive Voice Highlighter scans English prose for passive-voice constructions and marks each one inline. Passive voice — a form of to be followed by a past participle, as in “the application was reviewed” — often hides who is responsible for an action. Plain-language standards and many compliance frameworks ask public-facing notices to favour the active voice so readers know exactly who must do what. This tool finds the passives so you can rewrite them.

How it works

The highlighter applies a rule-based, sentence-by-sentence algorithm rather than a remote grammar service:

The text is split into sentences and each sentence is tokenised into words.
For every token it checks whether the word is a form of to be — is, am, are, was, were, be, been, being, get, got, gets (the last three catch the “get-passive” as in “got approved”).
It then looks ahead a few tokens, skipping adverbs and not, for a past participle. Regular participles ending in -ed are matched directly; an embedded list of common irregular participles (written, taken, given, made, sent, shown, held, kept, built, paid, and dozens more) covers the rest.
When a “to be” + participle pair is found, the whole span is highlighted, and any following by … agent phrase is marked so you can see the hidden actor.

Example and tips

Paste: “The form was submitted by the applicant and the decision will be made next week.” The tool highlights was submitted (with by the applicant as the agent) and be made.

To rewrite, move the actor to the front: “The applicant submitted the form, and we will make the decision next week.”
Keep a passive only when the actor is unknown or genuinely irrelevant.
A short sentence with no highlighted span is already active. Re-paste after editing to confirm your passive count has dropped to zero.

When passive voice is the right choice

The goal of plain-language editing is not to eliminate every passive — it is to eliminate the ones that obscure meaning. Passive voice is appropriate in several situations:

The actor is unknown: “The window was broken” (you do not know who did it).
The actor is irrelevant: “The law was passed in 1975” (who voted for it is not the point).
The object is more important than the actor: In scientific writing, “the sample was heated to 80°C” puts the experimental step first, where it belongs.
You want to avoid accusation: “Mistakes were made” is a deliberate rhetorical choice (though one that is often criticised for evasiveness).

The passive constructions that most damage readability are the ones where there is a clear responsible actor and the reader needs to know who that is. Government notices, terms and conditions, instructions, and complaint responses are the prime offenders — phrases like “your application will be processed” or “a decision has been reached” leave the reader wondering by whom and when.

Plain English standards that flag passive voice

Several readability and plain-language frameworks specifically address passive voice overuse:

The UK Plain English Campaign and similar organisations recommend favouring active voice in all public communications.
US federal agencies are guided by the Plain Writing Act (2010), which includes active voice as a core standard.
WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) notes that simpler language — including active-voice constructions — helps users with cognitive disabilities.
Legal drafting guidelines for consumer contracts in many jurisdictions now expect active voice for obligations and rights, so the reader immediately knows who must do what.