When Active Voice is Better and When it Isn't

Do you know the difference between active and passive voice? Do you know when to use them? 

The information in this post will help answer these questions. 

Active voice is more vibrant than passive voice. It is better in most cases, but there are exceptions.

Passive voice keeps the actor in the background. One reason you might want to use passive voice is if you don't want to sound accusatory. (e.g. The bank was robbed--we don't know for sure who did it.)

Compare the following two sentences and decide which one you think is active and which one you think is passive. 

1. The bed was made.

2. Kara made the bed.

If you said the first one was active and the second was passive, you are right! 

Many passive sentences have a form of the word "to be" (like "was") with a word ending in -ed following it, such as "The phone was cracked." Checking for this pattern can help you find passive sentences. Adding an actor will help make it active, as in "He cracked my phone." 

But if you don't want to accuse someone of cracking your phone, the passive sentence might be better!