Active vs. Passive Voice (Diplomatic Distancing)

Columbia West College Passive Voice in English: Rules, Examples, and When to Use It explains how the passive is formed, sets out its pattern in each common tense, and gives the reasons a writer chooses it, among them a neutral or formal tone. Columbia West College is an English language school, and this guide sits on the blog it writes for learners. It closes with the mistakes learners make most often.

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EnglishClub Passive Voice sets out the difference between the two voices, how the passive is formed, and when English speakers use it. EnglishClub publishes free English lessons for learners and teachers across grammar, vocabulary and the four skills. The page works through the form tense by tense, the cases where the doer is unknown or unimportant, and a set of paired active and passive examples.

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EnglishFact Strategic Use of Passive Voice in Professional Writing explains when the passive serves a formal report and a neutral tone, and when it starts to weaken the writing. EnglishFact is a language school that publishes a blog for learners of English. The article covers objectivity, focus and cohesion, the sections of a report where the passive belongs, incident reports, and advanced passive patterns.

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engVid The Passive: When, why, and how to use it presents a video grammar lesson in which the teacher explains why a writer reaches for the passive and how it is built in each tense. engVid publishes free video lessons by a group of English teachers, each with a quiz at the end. This lesson is aimed at intermediate and advanced learners and draws its examples from news sentences and written work.

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Grammarly Passive Voice: When to Use It and When to Avoid It explains what the passive voice is, how to spot it in your own sentences, and the situations where it is the better choice. Grammarly is a writing-assistant company whose blog publishes guides on English grammar and style. The article compares the two voices, shows how to turn one into the other, and lists the cases where the passive earns its place.

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Lessonpills Professional Writing: Using the Passive Voice for Formality holds a ninety-minute B2 lesson built around an audio recording, with eleven exercises worked on the page. Lessonpills publishes ESL lessons built on authentic audio for learners and teachers. This one works on the passive for a formal tone, five vocabulary items from the recording, phrases for presenting findings, and a discussion task.

Limits of the Free Tier Plan: This lesson opens and runs in full without an account, and its eleven exercises mark themselves as you work. The site keeps most of its library for paid plans: the free level gives the lessons marked free plus a look inside the others, while the paid levels open every lesson, all levels from A1 to C2, and the tools for building lessons.

Perfect English Grammar The Passive explains how the passive is formed in every tense, why a writer chooses it, and where the by-phrase goes. Perfect English Grammar is a grammar site written by one English teacher, who also records the video version of each explanation. The page carries that video, a printable explanation and a list of seven exercises graded from intermediate to difficult.

Limits of the Free Tier Plan: The explanation, the video and the exercises linked from the page open without an account, and the explanation downloads as a PDF at no charge. The site sells a grammar course and books from the same menu, and those are the only parts that cost anything; the lesson on the passive and its practice pages are free.

Test-English Active and Passive Voice (B1) gathers a grammar explanation and four self-marking exercises on choosing between the active and the passive form. Test-English publishes graded grammar points, tests and level exams for learners from A1 to B2. The exercises mix tenses and ask the learner to pick the right form in sentences about factories, incidents, buildings and other reported events.

Limits of the Free Tier Plan: The explanation and the four exercises on this grammar point open without an account and mark themselves as you answer. The site keeps a paid PRO upgrade for its extra material and for reading without advertising, and a free account is offered to follow your results; this B1 lesson and its exercises are not part of what is paid for.

The Art of Business English The Passive Voice for Reporting and Services covers the passive for reporting a result and for talking about services you arrange rather than carry out yourself. The Art of Business English is a podcast and blog for professionals who work in English. This lesson, the second of two on the passive, takes reporting verbs in the passive, have and get something done, and need with an -ing form.

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Varsity Tutors Using Passive Voice sets out a nine-section lesson for advanced ESL learners on choosing the passive in workplace and academic writing. Varsity Tutors is a tutoring company, and this lesson is part of the practice library on its site. It covers the form across tenses, six reasons to choose the passive, a workplace email revised step by step, and five practice problems.

100% Free (unlimited): All nine sections open on the page without an account, among them the tense table, the chart of how often the passive appears by genre, the worked email revision and the five practice problems with their model answers. The company sells tutoring and the page links to it, but no part of the lesson is held back from a visitor who signs up for nothing.