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Flag possible English passive constructions

Passive Voice Checker

Scan English sentences for a documented auxiliary-plus-participle pattern and return possible matches for manual review with sentence and percentage context. This is a conservative surface heuristic, not a grammar parser: it can miss passive voice, flag adjectival phrases, and never means that a matched sentence is wrong.

  1. 01Private by designYour text stays in this browser tab.
  2. 02Bounded and responsiveUp to 250,000 characters for bounded local analysis.
  3. 03Ready to reuseCopy the result or download a branded TXT file.
No text upload to Nirmion

Counting and transformations run locally. Nirmion does not send the text in this workspace to an API.

01 / Input

Paste the English draft to inspect

Use complete prose so each flagged phrase can be judged in context, including who acted, whether the actor is known, and what the sentence needs to emphasize. The scan is bounded to 250,000 characters and reports only sentences that match its English auxiliary and participle pattern.

Complete the required fields to enable this action.

Runs in this tab without an API request.

Product guide

Review agency and emphasis instead of deleting every match

Passive voice can be useful when the action or recipient matters more than the actor, when the actor is unknown, or when a discipline convention expects it. Review the complete result in its destination because automated text rules cannot infer every language, house style, data model, or publishing intention.
Step A

Prepare the input

Paste English sentences with punctuation. Lists, fragments, headlines, unusual verbs, and non-English text reduce the value of the heuristic.

Step B

Choose the rule

The checker looks for forms such as is, was, were, been, or got followed by a likely participle. It does not parse dependency grammar or identify an agent reliably.

Step C

Review the output

Open each numbered source sentence, decide whether the actor matters, and rewrite only when clarity, accountability, or pace improves without changing meaning.

How it works

A bounded auxiliary and participle pattern

Likely sentences are segmented, then each is tested for a documented set of English be, become, get, and got auxiliaries followed by an optional adverb and a common participle ending or irregular participle. Matched sentences are emitted unchanged and numbered so the original wording remains inspectable. The rule runs once per sentence on at most 250,000 input characters and reports the share of likely sentences that matched; it performs no model inference or grammar correction. The operation runs in this browser tab, applies explicit bounds before expensive work, and does not send workspace text to a Nirmion API.

Useful when

Focus an editorial review on agency

Use flagged sentences to ask who acted and what deserves emphasis, while preserving intentional passive constructions.

  1. Review reports, policies, incident notes, help content, and project updates for unclear responsibility or delayed subjects.
  2. Compare a revision with the original after changing sentence agency, ensuring facts and obligations remain intact.
  3. Teach the limits of rule-based grammar detection using visible matches rather than a hidden quality score.

Questions answered

Passive Voice Checker questions

Practical boundaries matter with text tools. These answers explain what is measured, what is retained, and when a manual review is still needed.

Is passive voice always bad?

No. It can appropriately emphasize a result, protect flow, follow disciplinary style, or handle an unknown actor.

Why was an adjective flagged?

The surface pattern cannot always distinguish a participial adjective from a passive verb phrase. Read every match in context.

Does zero mean the draft is active?

No. The bounded rule can miss irregular and complex constructions, and active syntax can still be vague or weak.

Privacy and retention

Your draft stays on your device.

Nirmion performs these operations with browser JavaScript. The workspace does not call the catalogue API with your source text, and completed-job content is kept only in this component memory for re-download.

A downloaded file remains in your browser downloads, device storage, backups, and any location where you share it. Clear or close the page when working on a shared device, and avoid pasting secrets into extensions or third-party clipboard managers.

Tool details

A passive voice review aid with no false certainty

Nirmion Passive Voice Checker flags English sentences that may contain a be, become, or get auxiliary followed by a likely participle. It returns the source sentences unchanged, plus count and percentage context, so writers can review agency without accepting an automatic rewrite. Likely sentences are segmented, then each is tested for a documented set of English be, become, get, and got auxiliaries followed by an optional adverb and a common participle ending or irregular participle. Matched sentences are emitted unchanged and numbered so the original wording remains inspectable. This makes the behavior inspectable and repeatable instead of presenting an unexplained result.

Possible matches download as text_nirmion_tools_passive_voice_review.txt, while a no-match report exports the metrics. The page documents false positives, missed constructions, legitimate passive uses, and its 250,000-character bound. The operation runs in this browser tab, applies explicit bounds before expensive work, and does not send workspace text to a Nirmion API. Downloading clears the active workspace while the latest three completed results remain available in this tab for re-download.