Welcome back with another passive voice lesson. Well, in my previous lesson, we learned passive
voice in the present tense. In this lesson, we’re going to learn passive voice in the
past tense. Well, in case you haven’t watched the lesson, please do watch the passive voice
in the present tense, okay. So now we follow the same steps that we learned in the present
tense. The subject becomes object, the object becomes subject , the verb goes in the past
participle form, uh you do not change the tense, you do not change the meaning and of
course you do not change the doer of the action, okay. Now, in my first sentence here-the man
cut down the tree, okay. Well, this is a past tense because uh of the verb cut. The man
cut, okay. But, a lot of people would assume it to be the past tense because they imagine
the tree is cut down, so the tree is already down on the ground and they think it’s a
past tense. Well, let the word ‘down’ not be the cause of assumption. It is the
verb that is in the past tense because if it, if it were a present tense verb, it would
be ‘cuts’ right? The man cuts down the tree and that’s a present tense. In this
case, there is no option but it is the past tense. The man cut down the tree. Well, let’s
ask the question. Who is doing the action? Who is the subject? In this case, we have
‘the man’. He is the doer of the action. What is the action? Cutting. So we have the
verb cut down the tree. But what is he cutting? The tree, right? So, remember we learned he
object is the person or thing on which action is done upon, okay. So this is your object.
So now, let’s quickly interchange it. You have the object becoming the subject okay,
and you have the subject becoming the object, okay. Now remember, the verb always goes in
the past participle form. In this case you have ‘cut’ ‘cut’ ‘cut’. The verb
remains ‘cut’ so ‘down’ remains the way it is, it’s not a verb, okay. So, the
tree cut down the man. Did the tree cut down the man? Of course not. The tree cut down.
Now, to keep it in the past tense, do not forget to add the supporting verb. Why do
we need a supporting verb? Because it helps you to identify it’s a past simple, it’s
a past continuous or a past perfect tense. In this case, it’s a simple past tense.
So, you will use the supporting verb ‘was’. The tree was cut down by the man. You have
maintained the tense. It’s a simple past tense. You have interchanged the subject-object
and object-subject and if you ask the question who did the action, you have the doer has
remained the same, okay. Despite being the object now, but he is still the doer of the
action and that is how we have a passive voice, fine. Now let’s take a look at the next
example, the boys were helping the wounded man. Okay, so who is doing the action? What
is the subject? You have the boys, okay. What were they doing? They were helping. So the
action was all in the past. So you have a past continuous tense because you have were,
were is past and helping is the verb in the ‘ing’ and that is how it is a continuous,
okay. Now, who were they helping? The wounded man. Oh well, ‘wounded’ means injured,
okay. Someone who is really injured. So this becomes your object, okay, because action
is done on him. Now when we interchange it, we make it subject-object object-subject,
okay let’s do that. The wounded man, okay, I’ve put in as subject. Let’s have the
boys becoming the object, okay. Like I always tell you ‘the verb’, the main verb goes
in the past participle, helping is the verb. So you have help helped helped. So you have
the, you have the verb in the third form, okay. Don’t forget your ‘by’. The wounded
man helped the boys , by the boys –no it’s not correct. Now because it is a continuous
tense, you have verb with ‘ing’, you’re going to maintain it in the passive continuous
tense by putting, you’ve put this in the third form, so you’re going to add some
auxiliary verbs now. The wounded man, now it’s one man, so you’re not going to put
‘were’ okay, no. You have to agree with the subject, the new subject. So the wounded
man was, it’s ‘ing’, so don’t forget to add the being and the wounded man was being
helped by the boys, right? You put the verb in third form and you have your continuous
tense here-was being helped by the boys, fine? So this is how you make a passive past continuous
tense. Now let’s take a look at the third sentence, he had given me a bouquet, okay.
So who gave me the bouquet? Who’s doingthe action? He, okay. What’s the object? A bouquet?
Is he doing action on the bouquet? Do you think so? Ask the question-who is doing the
action-he. What is the action- the verb. Now, is he giving me the bouquet or is he giving
something to the bouquet? So, action is done on me. So definitely because he is giving
me the bouquet , like he had given me, the action is done on me. I am the receiver of
the action, so ‘I’ become the object. Again I tell you, a lot of people would assume
bouquet to be the object, oaky. Probably because it is the last word in the sentence, it is
not so. Whenever you are confused, ask the question-on who is the action done? And well,
I have my answer here. So, definitely ‘me’ is the object, fine? So remember, let’s
just work with the subject, verb, object. So ‘me’ becomes ‘I’ in the subject,
okay. Let’s put it, by him. Okay, he becomes the object. Now, this is a past perfect tense
‘had given’, the verb is already in the third form. So you put it in the third form
here. It’s already there. You have to add a supporting verb or an auxiliary verb to
keep it in the past perfect tense when you make a passive voice. I had been given, okay,
a bouquet by him, okay. So here you have it, subject-object object-subject, the verb is
already in the third form and you have added a supporting verb to keep it in the past perfect
passive voice, okay friends. So now we’re gonna take a look at how to make questions
in the past tense, okay. So the first question-who broke the jar? Okay, the verb is ‘broke’
and jar is the object okay. Now, ‘who’ is the subject because we are asking about
the doer of the action. Now remember, when you put ‘who’ in the passive voice, it
is always better to start your question with ‘by whom’. Putting it in the end is not
completely wrong, but honestly, this is the more correct way to make it in the passive
voice. By whom, now because this is a simple past question, remember like I always tell
you, put it in the third form. By whom was because it’s the past tense. By whom was
the jar broken? Okay. So you have ‘was broken’ you have added a supporting verb. But remember,
in this case you split it, okay, because it’s a question. So you have the question-by whom
was the jar broken, okay? Now let’s take a look at the next question-why were you doing
the work? Now, you have ‘you’ as the subject, and what were you doing? The work. So you
have the object and you have your verb here in the past continuous tense. So we follow
the same rule, remember do not answer the question. Let the question remain a question.
Now why, the work is uh a noun that is uh uncountable. You don’t say you have five
works and because it is always in the singular, you will use a singular supporting verb. So,
why was the work, okay, you have an ‘ing’ being, don’t forget to put this in the third
form. So you have the question- why was the work being done by you? So always remember
this, when you add a supporting verb in your passive voice, ensure that it agrees with
the new subject, okay. So if I say, why were the work, it would be completely incorrect,
fine. So, why was the work being done by you? Now supposing the same question were in the
past perfect tense, it would be-why had you done the work, okay? So, you’re gonna follow
the same rules. Because it’s a past perfect, you have why had the work, okay. Why had the
work been, you will add been, okay, anyway it’s in the past perfect, the verb is already
in the past participle form. So, why had the work been done by you? This is how you have
a past perfect passive voice question, okay friends? Well, this brings me to the end of
this lesson. I hope you enjoyed watching. I have a small test to see how much you have
understood. Do take the test and let me know your scores. I’ll be back soon with a new
lesson. Till then, take care and bye.