In active voice, the subject performs the action ("The chef cooked the meal"), while in passive voice, the subject receives the action ("The meal was cooked by the chef").
Active voice follows the pattern subject → verb → object, and is generally more direct and easier to read. Passive voice restructures the sentence so the object of the action becomes the subject, often using a form of "to be" plus a past participle.
Active voice is usually preferred in most writing because it's clearer and more concise. Passive voice is useful when the person doing the action is unknown, unimportant, or intentionally being de-emphasized — for example, "The window was broken" when you don't know who broke it, or in formal scientific writing where the focus is on the experiment rather than the experimenter ("The sample was heated to 100°C").
Overusing passive voice can make writing feel vague or indirect, which is why most style guides recommend defaulting to active voice unless there's a specific reason to use passive.
Last reviewed: September 2026