Hi there.
Remember the podcast I did on sentence structure recently - and word order?
It was podcast 669.
Very recent.
Well, we did a Spotify poll and 82% of you said you'd like a whole
podcast on the passive voice.
So no time like the present, as we say in English.
Here it is.
Did you know that native English speakers use the passive voice a
lot, even in casual conversations?
Surprised?
Well, it's not just used in formal speech or written English.
Stick around because today we're going to cover the passive voice thoroughly and
practise using it in all of its tenses.
I'll explain what the passive voice is and how to construct it.
I'll talk about why and where it's used.
And for everyone, but especially the 6% of you who said they knew the passive
voice well enough, listen to the end of this podcast and use my Passive Voice
Quiz to test how well you know it.
The quiz will test that you know the different tenses in the passive voice.
It's good to practise.
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I'm sure you know someone else who'd like to learn the passive voice.
So, most sentences in English are in the active voice.
That's the norm.
The word active, A C T I V E, as an adjective means you're busy, full
of action, always doing things.
And by contrast, the word passive, P A S S I V E, as an adjective means
you sit back, allow things to be done to you, wait and see what happens.
That's passive.
So if you're the subject of the sentence and the verb is in active
voice, you're the one doing the action.' I hugged my daughter'.
But if you're the subject of the sentence in passive voice, you're being acted upon.
'I was hugged by my daughter'.
Makes sense, doesn't it?
The passive voice came up when I was talking in podcast 669 about
word order and how in statements it's usually Subject-Verb-Object.
'The dog chased the cat'.
'I ate the apple'.
'Millions of people watched the film'.
So in those active voice sentences, the subject, the one
doing the action, comes first.
Then the verb, then the object, the thing that the action is being done to.
But how do they sound in passive voice?
Active voice first.
'The dog chased the cat' becomes in passive voice - 'The
cat was chased by the dog'.
'I ate the apple' becomes in passive voice - The apple was eaten by me'.
'Millions of people watch the film' becomes in passive voice - 'the film
was watched by millions of people'.
Notice how the focus shifts from the doer of the action
to the receiver of the action?
We've swapped around the subject and the object of the sentence.
So what was the object in the active voice has jumped to
become first in the word order.
In the passive voice, and it's become the subject of the verb.
So the verb must agree with it.
So the cat, the apple, and the film are now each the subject in
the new passive voice sentences.
And the person or thing that was the subject in the active voice sentence,
well, it's like they've been demoted!
They may be mentioned after the verb, but it makes the person
or thing doing the action less important, an afterthought even.
And you can even leave them out all together.
Sometimes that makes a less meaningful sentence.
'The cat was chased'.
Or 'The film was watched'.
Both of those may have you thinking, Who by?
Or by whom?
But sometimes passive voice allows us flexibility and choice.
We can name who ate the apple.
Or we can simply leave that information out and say 'The apple was eaten'.
We may not know who ate it, or we may not want to point to the finger of blame.
We're being diplomatic, in other words, and not naming names.
There are many other reasons why you may want to leave out who did the action.
Sometimes we don't know.
Imagine being in school again and someone has done something
naughty and the teacher's telling off the class of children.
She might say, 'The window has been broken' or 'The bin has been tipped over
and rubbish has been left on the floor'.
Or 'The classroom scissors have been lost'.
The teacher may have her suspicions, but she doesn't know for sure who's done it.
So, she's using passive voice because she doesn't know who did it.
Let's say you're reading a scientific paper.
You might find sentences like, 'Rats were fed Omega 3 supplements'.
Who fed them?
It doesn't really matter.
The focus is on the experiment and the results.
That's why scientists use the passive voice all the time,
to write up their studies.
It highlights the important information.
Passive voice is also used in news reporting and politics.
Sometimes things are done by governments, and again it's not important which
person, which civil servant or government employee actually collected
the data or put together the report.
The focus is on the content of the report or the data itself, so
the passive voice has its uses.
Sometimes the passive voice can seem a little evasive.
We're not saying who did it, we're not naming names, even
if it might be more honest.
But there's nothing wrong grammatically with using the passive voice.
There are very good reasons for using it.
So grammar, how do you make an active voice sentence into
a passive voice sentence?
As I've said, what was the object of the verb in the active voice, swaps
to become the subject and first in the word order in the passive voice.
But the verb also changes.
For passive voice, we use the verb 'to be', which must agree with the
subject and have the correct tense.
Finally, we add the past participle.
Yes, the past participle.
Despite its name, it isn't just used for the past tense.
So examples of past participles are 'chased',' cleaned', 'done', 'found'.
And we use it for passive voice.
'The windows were cleaned'.
'The homework will be done'.
'The lost puppies have been found'.
Let's cover all the tenses in English.
So this will be a quick recap for many of you on tenses.
I'll give you the form for the passive voice for each one.
Present tense.
Simple Present - 'I do the cooking', in the passive voice becomes,
'The cooking is done by me'.
Present Continuous tense - 'I am doing the cooking', in the passive voice becomes
- 'The cooking is being done by me'.
If you know it, try and say it ahead of me.
Past tense.
Simple Past - 'I did the cooking' becomes, in passive voice - 'The
cooking was done by me'.
Past Continuous tense - 'I was doing the cooking', becomes - 'The
cooking was being done by me'.
Present Perfect tense - 'I have done the cooking', becomes in passive voice
- 'The cooking has been done by me'.
Past Perfect tense - 'I had done the cooking', becomes 'The
cooking had been done by me'.
Future tense.
Simple Future - 'I will do the cooking' becomes 'The cooking will be done by me'.
Future Perfect - 'I will have done the cooking' becomes 'The
cooking will have been done by me'.
OK, you might want to listen to that a few times so that the
mechanics of the passive voice become clearer and easier to remember.
Let's do a quiz.
Chance for you to practise your tenses and changing sentences
between active and passive voice.
So I'll say whether it's active or passive and I'll say the sentence, then
you need to change it to the other one.
And remember, you need the verb agreeing with the new subject
and use the same tense as I use.
Quite a lot to do then.
Here goes.
1.
Active voice.
'The dogs were chasing the rabbit'.
You do passive voice.
2.
Passive voice.
'The biscuits had been baked by the neighbour's children'.
You do active voice.
3.
Active voice.
'They have seen the boy who smashed the window'.
Can you put that into the passive voice?
4.
In the passive voice.
'The dinner will have been eaten by them by the time you arrive'.
Can you put that into the active voice?
5.
Active voice.
'He is using up the leftover chicken'.
What does the passive voice sound like?
6.
Passive voice.
'The doors and windows are checked each evening by my father'.
What does the active voice sound like?
Last one.
7.
Active voice.
'I will pick the apples on the tree'.
You do passive voice.
OK, you can pause there after the quiz and listen again.
Or you can continue straight to the answers.
I'll say the original sentence, and then I'll say whether active
or passive, and the tense.
See if you can say the tense too, and then I'll give you the answer.
1.
'The dogs were chasing the rabbit.
That's active and Past Continuous tense.
So in the passive voice, 'The rabbit was being chased by the dogs'.
2.
'The biscuits had been baked by the neighbour's children'.
That's passive voice and Past Perfect tense.
In the active voice, 'The neighbor's children had baked the biscuits'.
3.
'They have seen the boy who smashed the window'.
Active voice and Present Perfect tense.
In the passive voice, 'The boy who smashed the window has been seen by them'.
4.
'The dinner will have been eaten by them by the time you arrive'.
So that's passive voice and Future Perfect tense.
In the active voice, 'They will have eaten the dinner by the time you arrive'.
5.
'He is using up the leftover chicken'.
So, active voice, Present Continuous tense.
Same sentence in the passive voice?
'The leftover chicken is being used up by him'.
6.
'The doors and windows are checked each evening by my father'.
That's passive voice and Simple Present tense.
In the active voice - 'My father checks the doors and windows each evening'.
7.
'I will pick the apples on the tree'.
So that's active voice and future tense, simple future.
In the passive voice - 'The apples on the tree will be picked by me'.
OK.
How did you find that?
Listen to this podcast a few times until you get the hang of it.
Passive voice is not easy, but it's repeat listening, hearing it over
and over again, that will help you automatically know how to do it.
Enough for now.
Have a lovely day.
Speak to you again soon.
Goodbye.
Thank you so much for listening.
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