Sometimes, the passive voice is not so easy to identify especially if the doer of the action is not mentioned. Luckily for us, Rebecca Johnson, a professor from the US, came up with a fun and simple way to do so:
I finally learned how to teach my guys to ID the passive voice. If you can insert “by zombies” after the verb, you have passive voice.
— Rebecca Johnson (@johnsonr) October 18, 2012
Let’s give it a try:
- Mistakes were made (by zombies). Tears were shed (by zombies). — passive voice
- The new policy was approved (by zombies). — passive voice
- We are often told (by zombies) to use the active voice instead of the passive voice. — passive voice
- Language schools are sprouting (by zombies) all over the city. — not passive voice
It works! =D
Beyond Grammar 