“Learning is more effective when it is an active rather than a passive process.”
-Kurt Lewin
Many people face confusion around the passive voice. Are you struggling to change has been going to is going, but don’t know which software to use? In this article, I will walk you through five of the best and most effective passive voice checkers.
I used the following sentences containing passive voice and ran them through passive voice checking software to check their efficiency:
- A research document written by him is not of much value now.
- I was raised to believe.
- A car was hit by a bus.
- It was designed to function this way.
- This is known information.
- There is a considerable range of expertise demonstrated by the spam senders.
You can see the results in each review and pick the one you would like to use. Before that, let’s address some often asked questions about the passive voice.
Table of Contents
Frequently Asked Questions About Passive Voice
Here are the answers to some FAQs about the meaning and usage of the passive voice.
Passive voice is when the subject receives the action of the verb. E.g.: The windows were opened by him.
Passive voice is when the subject receives the action of the verb.
E.g., A car was hit by a bus. Here the emphasis falls on the bus. Let’s convert it into an active voice: The bus hit a car.
Do you see the difference in both sentences? The second sentence sounds better. It is easy to identify the doer of the action.
There is nothing innately wrong with the passive voice, but it can sound dull, rigid, and incoherent. Active voice is clear, direct, and easy to understand. If you’re a content creator, editor, or writer, you must steer clear from passive voice.
If you’re a lawyer or an academician, use passive voice. That said, it can confuse the reader and not have the desired impact.
There are two types of passive voices:
- Short Passive: In this type of usage, the subject or the performer is unknown. For instance, in the phrase “mistakes were made,” there is no subject, or it is anonymous.
- Long Passive: In this type of construction, the object becomes the subject of a sentence. For example, in the sentence “The letter was written by George,” the object ‘house’ has become the subject.
Grammarly is one of the best, if not the best, software for correcting punctuations, spellcheck, and other grammatical errors.
Grammarly Premium offers many features like spellcheck, a personal dictionary, and so on. The browser extension works with Safari, Chrome, and Firefox. You can easily add the extension to your desktop. Grammarly Premium highlights the passive voice in real-time and offers an in-depth explanation to improve your writing style.
The program may be comprehensive, but it cannot replace a human proofreader. In my testing of Grammarly, it only detected the passive voice in 3 of the six sentences. Instead of indicating the fourth sentence as passive voice misuse, it only flagged it for intricate text. Complicated passive voice sentences are harder to detect for software like Grammarly.
You can use this all-in-one grammar checking software as a habit builder. By following Grammarly’s suggestions, you can become a prolific writer. You can set goals, develop fluency, write clarity-focused sentences, adjust tone, and more. However, using Grammarly solely for the passive voice can be a bit expensive.
Price:
Free plan: Free to use as a browser extension.
Premium plan: Starting at $11.66/month.
Business plan: Starting at $12.50/member/month.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Highlights errors in real-time. | It isn’t 100% accurate. |
| Provides in-depth explanation and solutions. | Is not available offline. |
| All-in-one grammar checking software. | Overlooks some of the passive voice errors. |
| Has advanced features like setting goals, transforming style, structure, etc. | Relatively expensive. |
| Facilitates learning and improvement. |
ProWritingAid’s both free and premium versions are optimized for checking passive voice, readability, transitions, structure, style, and more.
ProWritingAid highlights mistakes in real-time. It may not be a good spell checker, but it delivers on the money when it comes to correcting other grammatical errors and providing deep insight. It is available as a browser extension on Windows and Mac. It also supports MS word, Google Docs, and Scrivener. This grammar checker works as a mentor to evaluate your writing and check if it’s comparable to fellow writers in the same field. The free version of ProWritingAid offers 22 detailed reports— 25 in the Premium version-which are ample to help you improve.
I tested ProWritingAid for passive voice detection. It highlighted the passive voice sentences in purple and poor readability in yellow. Out of the six sentences, it flagged 3 for passive voice misuse and 2 for poor readability. Unlike Grammarly, ProWritingAid detected passive voice in the fourth sentence. The web app itself gave an in-depth insight into the misuse of passive voice in these sentences and the methods to avoid them.
ProWritingAid’s Premium version has a 14-day refund policy to test the reliability of the software. It is a cheaper and far-reaching alternative to Grammarly.
Price:
Monthly subscription : $20/month.
Yearly subscription: $71/month.
Lifetime subscription: $399.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Highlights errors in real-time. | It isn’t 100% accurate. |
| Provides in-depth explanation and solutions. | Is not available offline. |
| Has a comprehensive free version and free trial. | Overlooks some of the passive voice errors. |
| Has a 14-day refund policy. | Not an extensive spell checker. |
| Has a Scrivener add-on. |
Hemingway Editor is best for professional writers with a firm grasp of the English language. It is available as a free browser extension and a paid desktop app.
Unlike Grammarly and ProWritingAid, Hemingway Editor does not offer any suggestions. It uses different colors to highlight various grammatical issues like adverb usage, passive voice misuse, readability, and extremely poor readability. Hemingway Editor further provides a grade score for the quality of writing. It gives quick stats on word count, number of paragraphs, sentences, and reading time.
I am impressed with Hemingway Editor’s ability to detect passive voice misuse. It highlighted 4 of the six misapplications, which is more than both ProWritingAid and Grammarly. However, the lack of suggestions and techniques to fix the issues makes it unsuitable for non-native English writers and students. Hemingway Editor is a relatively cheaper option for professionals.
Price:
You can get Hemmingway Editor for both Mac and PC for only $19.99. This one-time fee makes it a desired proofreader.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Highlights errors in real-time. | Does not provide solutions and in-depth analysis. |
| Is more accurate than Grammarly and ProWritingAid. | Not for students and non-native English writers. |
| All-in-one grammar checking software | |
| Cheaper than other grammar checkers |
Datayze is nothing like regular grammar checkers. You can analyze your text using their passive voice checker tool on the web.
It is available online and works similarly to Hemmingway Editor. The editor isn’t as clean and smooth as compared to the other software mentioned in this article. That notwithstanding, it detects common passive voice errors. Datayze has other writing tools like spell checker, word analyzer, difficult and extraneous word finder, readability analyzer, alternate spelling finder, and word blender. These tools, however, aren’t available together in one editor.
In my passive voice detector usage, Datayze highlighted passive voice errors in green in 3 of the six sentences. It did not provide any suggestions or solutions to rectify the mistakes. Further, it marked auxiliary verb phrases in yellow.
The lack of insight restricts learning and improvement. Another downside of this passive voice detector is the absence of real-time editing. The free version of the above three grammar checkers is much better than Datayze. I wouldn’t recommend Datayze over the other software mentioned in this article.
Price:
Free to use with an internet connection.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Available online for free. | Does not provide solutions and in-depth analysis. |
| Detects common passive voice errors. | Cluttered interface. |
| Detects auxiliary verbs. | Not available as an extension. |
| Not 100% accurate. |
|
| Not for students and non-native English writers. |
InkForAll is more for SEO writers than regular ones. The interface is clean and easy to use. However, it is slow as compare to Grammarly and Hemingway Editor.
You can use Ink’s passive voice checker online or download the app for Windows, Mac, and Linux systems. Ink’s SEO tools benefit business writers. You can add your key phrase, and the software will tell you how to optimize it. Spelling and Grammar are not the top features of Ink. It is worth looking at for an SEO writer.
I tested the online Passive Voice corrector of INK, and it highlighted three passive voice errors. It did not offer any suggestion or solution. It is a basic passive voice checker that cannot replace a human proofreader at any cost.
We are unaware of the prices of the pro version of Ink. I would recommend InkForAll for SEO purposes, but not as a writing assistant. It may be a digital marketer’s dream, but not a writer’s desired app.
Price:
Free web and desktop application.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Highlights errors in real-time. | Does not provide solutions and in-depth analysis. |
| Excellent SEO tool. | Not 100% accurate. |
| For business writers and digital marketers. | Not for students and non-native English writers. |
| Is available online for free. | The grammar checker is not the primary tool. |
| Has a free desktop app. |
Final Thoughts
Passive voice takes away the effectiveness of your content. Unless you are a scientist, lawyer, or academic, I don’t recommend using passive voice for stylistic purposes. I reviewed two other popular software that did not make it to the list. Let’s understand why:
- Ginger: Ginger is famous for being an alternative to Grammarly for its practical grammar and spell checking attributes. However, it did not detect any passive voice errors in my testing. I did not receive any response or solution to my query from the technical support team either. Therefore, I haven’t included Ginger in the list of best passive voice checkers.
- WhiteSmoke: WhiteSmoke is a popular grammar checker that claims to correct passive voice errors. However, in my testing, the results were precisely the opposite of the claim. Upon raising a query about the passive voice feature, the technical support team informed me that this feature is not available on WhiteSmoke.
My pick for the best passive voice checker is the Hemmingway Editor. Despite the lack of insight and solutions, it is more accurate than any other app listed in this review. If you are a student, then you can give a fair shot to ProWritingAid and Grammarly.
Are you ready to be more active in life? Let me know your preferred passive voice checker in the comment section.
