GMAT Grammar: The GMAT’s Passive Voice Policy
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In short; passive voice is acceptable on the GMAT.
If only it were that easy. Passive voice is allowed, but not always correct. Like all concepts you’ll encounter in sentence correction, the GMAT is going to try to manipulate your assumptions and rely on some interestingly nuanced ideas. Well, interesting for someone who studies the GMAT — mostly frustrating for someone who’s trying to take it. But I digress.
Passive voice is actually a fairly simple idea. A sentence is written in passive voice if the object is being used as the subject. Okay, that may not sound simple, but it will become apparently after a few examples. Start with an easy sentence written in active voice (meaning the subject is still the subject):
The dog chases the ball.
The core of the sentence is “The dog chases.” The subject, “dog,” is performing the action “chases” on the object “ball.” To write that same sentence in passive voice, we need to rearrange things so that the object is the subject.
The ball is chased by the dog.
Notice how the core changes substantially to “The ball is chased.” The actor in the sentence, the dog, is no more than part of a prepositional phrase when written in passive voice. There’s two things we should delve into with this simple sentence; how to recognize passive voice using more than your ear and how passive voice could be right when it sounds so wrong.
How to recognize passive voice
Generally, native or fluent English speakers will be able to recognize passive voice because it sounds awkward and wordy, but we need to get more scientific than that. Typically, the passive voice is constructed using some form of “to be” (is, was, were…) along with a past participle. If you need a refresher on past participles, catch up with this article. In our simple sentence, that phrase is “is chased.” The active voice form uses simple tense; “chases.” Here are a few more examples:
- Coffee is loved by almost every American. → “is loved”
- The outlaws were sentenced to long prison terms. → “were sentenced”
- The new story has been covered by every media outlet. → “has been covered”
In the first and third example, the subject was included in the sentence using the preposition “by.” This is common, though not necessary, in passive voice. By the way, did you notice the use of passive voice in the first sentence of this paragraph? (Didn’t spot it? “Was included”) In the context of this paragraph, passive is more correct than active! But why? Let’s explore.
Very, very nuanced side note (read at your own risk): not all “to be + past participle” phrases are passive voice. Consider the sentence “I am loved.” Actually, if you’ve been studying GMAT for a few hours and are feeling a bit down, repeat it to yourself ten times. That is an active sentence. I am is the subject-verb pairing. “Loved” is a state of being. It is not an action being taken, so not part of the verb, but simply a way to describe myself, similar to saying “I am a woman” or “He is smart.” “To be + past participle” is passive voice only if the past participle is being used as a verb, but an adjective.
Why passive voice is fine
If you’re like most people, an average passive voice sentence sounds wrong. About 50 years ago, grammar books started instructing writers not to use passive voice. As a result, you’ve likely been trained to listen for passive voice and strike it down when it appears. Yet if you re-read this post, you’ll find instance after instance of passive voice that you didn’t even notice.
On the GMAT, there are two common reasons why passive is perfect for meaning.
Reason 1: Whoever is performing the action is de-emphasized.
This is why “the ball is chased by the dog” sounds awful, but “the outlaws were sentenced to long prison terms” sounds fine. Both are passive sentences, but in the first, the actor is important. The dog is doing the chasing, he should have a more prominent position in the sentence. In the second, the actor is never mentioned. Who did the sentencing? A judge? A jury? A random person on the street? No idea. But it’s not the point or even really relevant to the sentence, so we can continue our discussion of the outlaws without worrying about it using passive voice.
By the way, this reason is why you may find several instances of passive voice in this post. A few paragraphs back, you saw the sentence “the subject was included in the sentence…” Try to change it to active voice.
To accomplish this, you need to figure out who the actor is in “was included”? Or, as I phrase it in my classes, who did the including? Well, it’s the writer of this post; me, your much beloved Emily Madan. So to rephrase in active voice; “I included the subject in the sentence…” But I don’t want to be part of this post. Our focus is passive voice and I, sadly, am completely irrelevant. So, the actor in the rest of these sentences will be removed through the use of passive voice.
Reason 2: Clarifying the actor
The second reason why passive voice is used is to clarify the actor, which may have long or multiple modifiers that could obscure it. We already know that noun modifiers must be close to if not touching the noun they modify (read this post if you don’t know it). Let’s see how this is used:
The black hole was described as unimaginably large by scientists who had been working with black holes for decades and had won renown as experts in their field.
A perfectly reasonable sentence that many people who have not read this post would discard for this problematic sentence:
The scientists described the black hole as unimaginably large, who had been working with black holes for decades and had won renown as experts in their field.
Read it again if that last sentence sounded right to you. There is a huge, unforgivable error you must be able to catch!
The noun modifier, the phrase that starts “who,” is modifying black hole. (Again, read the modifier post if you disagree.) The sentence means that black holes have been working with black holes for decades. Wrong. Let’s try another pairing.
The dress is worn by Susan, who spent three months saving enough money to purchase it.
Susan is wearing the dress, spending three months saving enough money to purchase it.
Again, the first example is right, the second is wrong. Positioning the actor toward the end of the sentence gives more room to elaborate on it. Does that mean you must use passive voice to emphasize the actor? Of course not. Write out both passive and active sentences using the following:
- Actor and Action: Amy picked up the phone (or, in passive voice; the phone was picked up by Amy)
- Phone Modifier (rephrase as needed): Ringing persistently
- Amy Modifier (rephrase as needed): Grinding her teeth in annoyance
Example: Amy picked up the phone, which was ringing persistently, grinding her teeth in annoyance.
See if you can write a few more before reading on.
Here are some I created (or, to passively remove myself, here are some that were created):
The phone, which was ringing persistently, was picked up by Amy, who was grinding her teeth in annoyance.
Ringing persistently, the phone was picked up by Amy, who was grinding her teeth in annoyance.
Grinding her teeth in annoyance, Amy picked up the phone, which was ringing persistently.
All of those are correct, but all depend on modifier position. If you spot passive voice, be on modifier patrol.
How else might passive voice be relevant? Spot the errors (or lack thereof) in these sentences:
The beaver gnawed at the tree for hours and it finally fell over.
The tree was gnawed at by the beaver for hours and it finally fell over.
The teacher is criticized for being boring but is actually a brilliant mathematician.
People criticize the teacher for being boring but is actually a brilliant mathematician.
Did you find both incorrect sentences? The two active voice examples are incorrect and, surprise, surprise for the passive voice post, the two passive voice examples are correct. If we were to categorize each, the beaver example is a pronoun issue and the teacher example is a subject-verb issue, but both are similar because passive voice is the controlling factor.
For pronouns, the GMAT asks you to overcome ambiguity. Technically, “it” could be either the beaver or the tree. We need to resolve that ambiguity. In the first sentence, there’s no way to tell which the author means. Gnawing for hours is exhausting, maybe the beaver needed a nap. I’d argue that’s actually the more grammatical read; that the beaver did, in fact, fall over. A more logical read is that the tree fell over. The passive voice version completely resolves that ambiguity. The core of the sentence is “The tree was gnawed and it fell over.” 100% clear. The pronoun decides whether active or passive voice should be used.
We will resolve subject-verb issues with the same technique: find the core, make sure everything is logical. Find each core of the teacher sentences before reading on if you haven’t yet.
The teacher is criticized but is a brilliant mathematician.
People criticize the teacher but is a brilliant mathematician.
Changing between active and passive changes the subject. The verbs “is criticized” and “criticize” both work with their respective subjects, but “is a brilliant mathematician” could only be the verb for the subject “teacher.” The subject of the sentence must therefore be teacher. Between these two sentences, only the passive voice sentence could be correct.
The moral of this story? Passive voice is completely acceptable, but depends on interactions with other parts of the sentence. If you notice an active versus passive voice split, watch for interactions with other issues including subject-verbs, modifiers, and pronouns. If you want more practice and more insight into other topics, review our Sentence Correction Strategy Guide. ?
Of course, the most in-depth way to learn the ins-and-outs of the GMAT is to take a complete course with one of our master instructors. You can try out any first session for free! No strings attached. We promise.
Emily Madan is a Manhattan Prep instructor based in Philadelphia. Having scored in the 99th percentile of the GMAT (770) and LSAT (177), Emily is committed to helping others achieve their full potential. In the classroom, she loves bringing concepts to life and her greatest thrill is that moment when a complex topic suddenly becomes clear to her students. Check out Emily’s upcoming GMAT courses here. Your first class is always free!