
If kicked is really the verb you want to use in that sentence, then instead of trying to get the ball to kick something, which wouldn’t work unless you were writing sci-fi, you can instead pick a subject that isn’t the object of the verb. Of course, sometimes the problem with the sentence isn’t just that the subject isn’t acting it’s more that the wrong subject is there to begin with. It isn’t just sitting around waiting to be kicked. Notice that suddenly the ball is doing something. Did it soar through the air? If so, then we can make this sentence active by saying that: For starters, we can ask what the ball, the subject, did. If passive voice occurs when the object or subject of the sentence is being acted on, then it makes sense to learn that active voice occurs when the subject is doing the acting. So what is the opposite of passive, then? The Opposite of Passive Voice Is Active Voice If you want your writing to be more lively, then your subjects need to be more lively too.

This is why many people will say that passive voice is a little boring. And just like a person who is always passive, sometimes you just want to tell that sentence to do something already!ĭon’t just sit there letting the writing pass you by. It’s just sitting there waiting for someone or something else to kick it. Notice that there is a ball at the center of the action in this sentence. We’ll cover more examples later, but just in case you need to see one to understand, let’s start with an easy one:

Let’s talk about this in technical terms: In passive voice sentences, the main actor in the sentence doesn’t really do anything. Or perhaps you think about a person who never comes out and says what they really feel. You may think of someone that just lets things go by them without reacting. What do you know about the word passive in general? There is a reason that writing uses the same word: They are very similar.

In the Spelling and Grammar dialog box, when the text is flagged as Passive Voice, click Ignore Rule. This operation resets the spelling checker and the grammar checker so that Word will recheck words and grammar you previously checked and chose to ignore. In Word 2007, click Recheck Document on the Proofing tab. On the Spelling & Grammar tab, click Recheck Document. In Word 2007, click the Microsoft Office Button, and then click Word Options. To do this, follow these steps:Ĭlick OK to close the Readability Statistics dialog box. NOTE: If you wait too long to press F7, the Readability Statistics dialog box continues to display the incorrect statistics for the document, and you must recheck the document. The Readability Statistics dialog box should now show the correct statistics for the document. Method 1: Press F7 to Recheck the Text (Recommended)Īfter you run the Spelling and Grammar check and view the Readability Statistics dialog box showing the incorrect statistics, immediately press F7 a second time to recheck the text. Use one of the following methods to work around this problem. When you use the grammar checking tool on a document that contains sentences that are written in the passive voice, the document's Readability Statistics report displays an inaccurate or zero percentage (0%) value for passive sentences in the document. A Readability Statistics report for a Word document displays an inaccurate value for passive sentencesįor a Microsoft Word 2000 version of this article, see 220296.
