Are there times when passive voice is better than active?

In one line

The rule

Passive voice is used when the subject of the sentence receives the action, not does it.

In active voice: The chef cooked the meal. In passive voice: The meal was cooked by the chef.

Let's understand it simply

Imagine you are watching a cricket match. If you care about who hit the six, you say, "Virat hit a six." (active voice). But if you care more about the six itself, you say, "A six was hit." (passive voice). Sometimes, you don't know who did something, or it doesn't matter. Then, passive voice helps you focus on the action, not the person.

How it works

1. Decide what you want to focus on: the doer or the action.
2. If the doer is important, use active voice.
3. If the action or result is more important, use passive voice.
4. If you don't know who did it, passive voice is useful.
5. In formal writing (like science reports), passive voice is often used to sound objective.

The story behind it

English has both active and passive forms to give writers and speakers choices. Over time, people noticed that sometimes the doer is not as important as the action. For example, in news or science, the focus is often on what happened, not who did it. This led to the use of passive voice in certain situations.

Where you see it in real life

• News reports: "A new law was passed yesterday." (Who passed it is not the focus.)
• Science experiments: "The solution was heated to 80°C." (Focus on the process, not the person.)
• Instructions: "The button should be pressed to start the machine." (Anyone can do it.)
• Crime reports: "The shop was robbed last night." (Robber unknown or not named.)
• Official letters: "Your request has been approved." (The approver is not important.)

Why it matters

• Helps you write clearly when the doer is unknown or unimportant.
• Makes your writing more formal and objective, useful in reports and exams.
• Lets you focus on results, not people, in science and news.
• Important for higher-level writing and understanding English grammar.

Common mistakes

• Thinking passive is always wrong: It is useful in the right situation.
• Overusing passive voice: Too much can make writing dull or confusing.
• Forgetting to mention the doer when it is important: Sometimes, you must say who did it.

Remember it

Use passive voice when the action or result matters more than who did it.