Grammar: Passive Voice & Nominalisation

Why This Matters (কেন গুরুত্বপূর্ণ)

Academic English, including the register expected in PTE's Write Essay and Summarize Written Text, relies heavily on passive voice and nominalised nouns (turning a verb like "decide" into "decision") to sound objective and impersonal. Overusing simple active sentences with "I think" makes writing sound conversational rather than academic, which can cap your Written Discourse score.

একাডেমিক ইংরেজি, যেমন Write Essay ও Summarize Written Text-এ প্রত্যাশিত, বস্তুনিষ্ঠ শোনাতে passive voice ও nominalisation ব্যাপকভাবে ব্যবহার করে। শুধু সরল active বাক্য ব্যবহার করলে লেখা কথোপকথনের মতো শোনায়।

See the fuller IELTS Passive Voice & Nominalisation guide for complete rules and more examples.

When Passive Voice Sounds More Academic

Use passive voice when the action itself matters more than who performed it — very common in describing research, data, or general processes.

TOO CONVERSATIONAL"Researchers did the survey in 2023 and they found some interesting results."
MORE ACADEMIC"The survey was conducted in 2023, and several interesting results were found."
TOO CONVERSATIONAL"Someone should fix this problem quickly."
MORE ACADEMIC"This problem should be addressed promptly." (কর্তা কে তা গুরুত্বপূর্ণ নয়।)

Nominalisation: Turning Verbs into Nouns

Converting a verb or adjective into a noun form often makes a sentence sound more formal and lets you pack more information into a single clause — useful for hitting Summarize Written Text's tight one-sentence limit.

VERB FORM"Governments decided to invest more, and this improved the economy."
NOMINALISED"The government's decision to invest more led to a significant improvement in the economy."

Common nominalisations: decide → decision, improve → improvement, discover → discovery, analyse → analysis, reduce → reduction, argue → argument.

Your Turn (অনুশীলন করুন)

Rewrite each sentence to sound more academic, then reveal a model answer.

1 "People discovered the ancient ruins in 1911."
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"The ancient ruins were discovered in 1911." — passive voice, since the discoverer is not the focus.

2 "Scientists analysed the data and they concluded that the trend was real."
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"Analysis of the data led to the conclusion that the trend was real." — nominalised nouns tighten the sentence.

3 "The company reduced its emissions a lot last year."
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"The company achieved a significant reduction in emissions last year." — noun form reads more formally than "reduced ... a lot."

4 "Someone built the bridge over ten years."
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"The bridge was built over a period of ten years." — passive voice removes the unnecessary, unknown agent.