Hi, friends welcome to our new lesson. Well, first of all, congratulations to all of you.
You guys have done a great job or rather you are doing a great job. You're learning English
and you've covered all the basic stuff in English. You know your sentences and we are
very happy about that but now I think it's time to take your language skills to the next
level, a notch higher. Yes, don't you want to? Of course, you should because it is imperative
to understand the various aspects of sentences, the different types of sentences. So you can
use them and you can understand when others are using those sentences while speaking to
you. I'm sure you don't want to be lost wondering
what did he try to say. I mean that is not something that I know of. Of course not, you
shouldn't go through that. So this is what today's lesson is about but before we begin,
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Well, let's start today's lesson. Yes, it's about active and passive voice. Trust me guys
it's not that boring. Okay, it's not that technical. It's very simple but it is important
for you to stay on and watch the entire lesson till the end because I have certain things
where you may get stuck while using active and passive sentences but I'll cover that
in the end. So hold on wait and learn.
Okay, let's start, to simplify this so-called perceived, you know complex lesson; I have
chosen to only cover the present tense today. Okay so we'll go tense-wise so there is no
confusion. So let's start, so active and passive. Now first what is active? And what is passive?
Okay. The man takes the dog for a walk is active. Simple, you know that it’s a basic
simple sentence but supposing I want to generate some curiosity and I come and tell you, “I've
been told that Daniel and Samantha are dating.” Okay so I have generated that curiosity because
I have not told you who's told me that, right? I’ve just told you I have been told. Do
you know who's told me? Of course not and I don't want to tell you who told me because
someone has asked me not to say their name, to tell others that they have said it. So
let's see how we can generate curiosity or speak even more effectively in English. Yes,
so my first sentence goes, Rita narrates a story to the children, simple present tense.
Okay, she narrates a story to the children. Now she is the doer of the action or the subject,
what you may say so and we have an object. You'll have learned this in simple sentences.
So far you have a subject, you have an object, you have a verb, okay. So it's the same thing,
we're just going to play around a little bit with these. Now at any point of time, if you're
confused, which probably you would be, as to what is an object? An object is a person
or thing on which action is done. Okay it is not the last word of the sentence. This
is not the object. If I said Rita narrates, is she narrating the children? No, she's narrating
a story. So you need to understand. The minute you are confused, ask the question what? Rita
narrates what? Okay and you have your object here, fine. So let's put this in a better
way or rather in a little complicated way which is not that bad. A story, okay so I've
made the object into a subject so this has become my new subject. A story is narrated
to the children by Rita. Okay remember you do not change the doer of the action. So Rita
is narrating, the children are not narrating. So Rita still remains the narrator. How do
you still sustain her as the doer? Add the word by. Okay, so subject becomes object,
object becomes subject. Now my verb is in the present, narrates. When I put it in the
past tense, I'm sorry when I put it in passive voice, I will put it in past participle not
the past tense. That's past participle. So narrated is the third form or the past participle.
Okay but friends you have to remember that you cannot change the tense. Okay it will
remain in the present tense. So to keep it in the present tense, I use the word is. A
story because it's one, okay a story is narrated to the children by Rita. Simple, so I come
and tell you, hey a story is narrated to the kids by the teacher every single day, all
right. So I have put it from active to passive voice okay. So here you have the simple present
tense active, simple present tense passive. Fair enough? Subject-object, object- subject.
The verb goes in the past participle form and you add a supporting verb to maintain
the tense okay of that particular sentence.
Let's take a look at the next example in the present tense. The doctor is treating these
patients okay. So imagine we're talking about here the doer, simple sentence. I mean simple
in the sense means easy but it's a present continuous okay. You have the present continuous
tense here, is treating these patients. So imagine you and I are walking into a hospital
and I'm like, these patients are being treated by the doctor. You'll be like, what? Yes,
that's the passive voice. So hold on, is treating who? Who is the question or treating what?
In this case, who because there are people, you have the object, fair enough? Okay so
you have these patients, the object becomes subject. So you have the new subject here.
Okay, are being treated. Now let's go step by step. Treating is the verb; put it in the
past participle form okay, fair enough and because it is in the present continuous tense
you cannot change it. So you say, are being because being, b-e-i-n-g which is a present
continuous form of the verb be is used in passive voice because to maintain the continuous
form and you have are being because I can put were being or you know you will get confused
because it could be the past tense. It could be the present tense but here it’s present,
so you need to put a present verb. But now you need to understand the doctor is but here
the patients, plural you will have a plural verb and here you have by, that means the
doctor is still doing the action though you have put the sentence in the passive voice,
simple? He is the object and he still remains the doer of the actions. Please remember you
cannot change the doer friends because if you do that, the whole meaning will change.
Like you cannot say these patients are treating the doctor. No, that's hell okay. Don't even
think about that. So are being treated by the doctor, by the doctor because he is doing
the action, fair enough? So this was a simple present, continuous present.
Let’s see the next one. Oh, we have a present perfect tense. The students have played this
game. Students are doing the action, subject plus doer, okay doing what? What? What are
they doing? They've played? Played what? What? The game, object. Okay, the tense is present
perfect, have played. Now played is already in the past participle, great, the job is
done here okay but this game has played becomes wrong. I want to tell you the game has been
played. So here, we put been okay, in present perfect, okay passive. So you’ve got to
remember these small things okay. So you have this game has been played by the students.
I have followed the same rule; I've made the subject, the object here, by okay. You have
a new object; this game has become the subject but has because one game okay, I can't say
this game have been played. So remember when you are changing subject-object, the verb
has to agree with the new subject. In this case, has alright. So I have a present perfect
passive voice. Like I told you in the beginning, I have been told that Daniel and Samantha
are dating. So, I have been told, so that is the present perfect tense. I'm not mentioning
who because I chose not to. Well, you can do that so next time you know how to let out
a little secret, okay.
Now confusion, confusion is what happens in a question okay? So why does your brother
write such poems? Simple present tense, why does your brother? Don't answer it, don't
even think about it. All you need to do is change from active to passive. You don't have
to answer why he writes such poems. So why will remain there because it's a question.
You want to keep it in the question form. Now, why are, this is, subject and you have
the object here. Let’s interchange here. You have why are such poems, verb in the past
participle. Okay, why are such poems written by your brother? Okay, I have maintained the
tense, subject becomes object, object becomes subject. Now supposing, let's take the same
situation, I'm a bit annoyed or I'm a bit upset about your brother writing such letters.
I don't want to offend you okay, so I don't want to tell you your brother, your brother.
So I come and say, why are such poems written? Okay, I can just say this much. I don't want
to hurt you. I don't want to take his name and be mean or you know sound belittling.
So, I say why are such poems written? Okay, so well that's how you use a passive voice,
that's how you generate curiosity. That's how you speak less offensively in a dicey
situation okay. So that's what you do in questions. The question remains the question, subject-object,
object –subject, verb goes in the past participle and yes because it is present tense, does,
I have kept a present tense verb, all right.
Okay so the last one's a bit tricky and you need to pay a little more attention because
people speak English all over the world okay. Now that you know the rules, I'm sure you're
going to come up with this sentence; English is spoken by people all over the world. First,
let’s just identify subject, okay verb, all over the world is not the object. What
is spoken? English, here's your object. Now you will go with the normal rule of object
–subject, subject-object, which is pretty fair enough. Okay and you will come up with
English is spoken, you put this in past participle, I'm just writing PP for the short form, past
participle by people all over the world okay but there's a catch here. If I tell you, people
are saying this and people are saying that or they told me about this, your first question
would be which people? Okay, people means what? Indefinite okay. They, they asked me
to come there. Who they? Who are these they? Are their colleagues? Yes if I say, my colleagues,
I'm defining the people or the group of people I'm talking about but people, is indefinite.
If I come and tell you, we are going for a picnic; would you like to join us? Your first
question would be who we? Who all are coming? Yeah because we is indefinite right? So the
rule is when you have an indefinite pronoun or a noun in the passive voice, you will not
use it. So the correct sentence is, English is spoken all over the world. So you can have
things like, we, they, someone, okay, people okay. So your various indefinite nouns and
pronouns. When in passive voice, you will not use by the people, by someone, by us okay.
Generally, the rule is, you do not use it. You have the new subject and the verb in the
past participle with a supporting verb. In this case, it is, is. So English is spoken
all over the world. So remember there are always some exceptions to the rules and you’ve
learnt two exceptions or rather one exception because this is really important.
Well, that brings me to the end of active and passive voice, only present tense. Now
I'm sure after a little practice, you can go out and use or rather speak in the passive
voice, generate curiosity, sound less offensive and take your language to the next level.
Well, friends thank you for watching. I'll be back soon with a new lesson till then take
care and bye.