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I can't seem to figure out how the below sentence would be written in a passive voice, even though my spelling software is complaining about it. Is there a way to rewrite it that I'm not seeing?

"The full-text search field is used a few times per day."

It's specifically highlighting "is used" as the error which seems essential in any sentence structure to me...

Franky
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  • It is not an error. There are cases where passive voice should probably be avoided, but not here. Your sentence with active voice would read like this: "(Someone/something) uses the full-text search field a few times per day," i.e. you need a subject that acts upon the object (full-text search field), but it's really not necessary. – Wehage Jun 23 '20 at 09:45
  • @Wehage: why don't you make that a proper answer, so we can up-vote it? – virolino Jun 23 '20 at 11:06
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    @virolino Point taken. It was originally just going to be "it's not an error," but off I went. – Wehage Jun 23 '20 at 11:20
  • It's not clear to me if the sentence means something like "a normal user uses it a few times per day" or "all users together only use it a few times per day." Using active voice is one way to clarify. A better way might be to add "across all users" to your passive construction. – Justin Jun 23 '20 at 19:40

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It is not an error. There are cases where passive voice should probably be avoided, but not here. Your sentence with active voice would read like this:

(Someone/something) uses the full-text search field a few times per day.

I.e. you need a subject that acts upon the object (full-text search field), but it's really not necessary.

A few examples here of when it is appropriate to use the passive voice.

Wehage
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  • And worse, 'Someone uses the full-text search field a few times per day' could misleadingly suggest that it's the same someone each time! – AakashM Jun 23 '20 at 20:46