The difference between passive & active language
Written by Niki juhasz
I’m a sucker for cooking competition shows. You know the ones – chefs have 20 minutes to make a seven course gourmet meal using only ingredients they can find in the woods.
While I love these shows, they use passive language. A lot. And it drives me BANANAS. Every time. Why? Because passive language is the enemy of simple, easy-to-understand language. Using passive language can confuse your audiences – or even stop them from reading/listening to your message.
We’re breaking down why, along with writing best practices, below.
What’s the difference between passive and active language?
Passive voice. When the subject is receiving the action, then it’s passive. Politicians and businesses often use passive language to avoid blame. For example, a business may say “internet access will be shut off for residents living in the Penrose neighborhood.” This way, they don’t have to say “we’re shutting off your internet!”
Active voice. When a subject takes the action, then your sentence is active! Active voice sounds direct and focuses on clarity.
Why active voice is more powerful.
I’m going to let you in on a secret: 9 times out of 10, active voice is better for child and family advocates. Passive language is less direct, wordier and overall harder to read. Active language helps simplify your messaging – and as we know, simple messaging is equitable messaging.
I’m passionate about this topic because passive language is complicated. Making it active is one of the easiest ways to simplify your messaging. And ALL of our audiences deserve simple-to-understand messaging.
Busy families? 100 percent. They don’t have time to fight through complex content.
Fellow advocates? Let’s make it easy for them to do their jobs.
Business partners? Absolutely. You know how busy they are!
Donors? Served best by simple language.
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Can you share some more examples?
I’m glad you asked!
Passive Voice
Active Voice
The Forthright team enjoys learning together.
- In this sentence – we, the Forthright team (our subject) – are actively enjoying learning together.
Learning together is enjoyed by the Forthright team.
- In this example, learning together serves as our subject. It is being enjoyed (passively) by our team.
- The way we wrote the sentence above this one – including the phrase “is being enjoyed” — is also passive.
We’re awarding the grants next week.
The grants are going to be awarded next week.
- Note how many more words we need here! It’s significantly wordier than the active version.
The chef deep fried the cheese and added it to the salad.
The cheese was deep fried by the chef and was then added to the salad.
- See? THIS is what drives me bonkers! Looking at you, Food Network presenters.
Niki ate the entire box of chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream in one sitting.
The entire box of chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream was eaten in one sitting by Niki.
- Using two words for a verb – like was eaten instead of ate – is often a sign you’re using passive language.
Need more tips to simplify your messaging? Download our free worksheet here.
