Hi there!
Hi! What are we learning about in this video?
We’re going to talk about a different kind of sentence structure.
Okay.
But first, let’s look at how we normally use sentences.
Every sentence has some nouns.
In English, the most important noun typically comes at the beginning of the sentence.
You mean the subject?
Right. Can you remind us what a subject is?
It's the noun that does the action, or whatever the verb is.
Exactly. Subjects are active nouns, or – like you said – the nouns that take action.
So how might we describe the other nouns?
Are they passive nouns?
Yeah. Action happens to them; they don't do the action themselves.
We call these nouns objects.
Okay, so why are we talking about this now?
Because now we’re going to change it up.
Let’s read this sentence.
“Someone stole my purse!”
Oh no!
Now, we’ve got two nouns here.
Which one is more important to you, in this situation?
My purse.
Right. You don’t care so much about who stole it. You just want your purse back.
We don’t even know who stole it, right? Just … ‘someone’.
Exactly. So why are we talking about that someone and what he or she did?
Remember when we started, I said the most important noun is usually at the beginning.
Well, can we just switch them and put ‘my purse’ at the beginning?
That is a great idea. Let’s do that.
We’ll need to change a few more things as well, but when we finish, we get this sentence:
“My purse was stolen!”
That’s a lot better, isn’t it?
Yeah.
So, now we’ve got a sentence in which an object – or, a passive noun – is the focus.
And is first.
We call this “Passive Voice,” or the “Passive Structure.”
Okay. So, the Passive form is when we do a sentence backwards?
Well, it looks like that sometimes. But a better way to think about it is like this:
With the Passive Voice, we pay attention to what happens TO a noun, instead of the noun does.
Okay, I think I got it.
But this is very different from how we normally talk, isn’t it?
Not really. You hear and read the Passive Voice all the time, but you just didn’t realize it before.
In fact, I can think of a few ways you’ve even used the Passive Voice
probably since you started learning English.
Like what?
Like “I was born in France,” or “I was born in 1990,” or whatever.
You didn’t carry yourself around for nine months, then give birth to yourself.
Your mother did that for you.
‘Born’ isn’t something you did; it’s something that happened to you.
Right.
Also, “What is this called?” “It’s called a muffin.”
The muffin doesn’t walk around all day calling itself a muffin.
People call it a muffin.
Exactly. And how about this:
“This spoon was made in China,” or “This spoon is made of metal.”
The spoon didn’t make itself.
I hope not. That would be some strange science-fiction stuff.
So would giving birth to yourself.
I think we can agree that since we live in the real world, we need to use the Passive Voice sometimes.
Yeah, agreed!
I understand why we use Passive Voice now, but how do we use it?
Excellent question. There are 4 steps. Are you ready?
Yeah.
Okay. Let’s start with some new sentences.
“Americans celebrate Thanksgiving.”
And “Some people saw Bigfoot near here.”
So, what do we do?
First, we need to put the passive noun before the verb.
Where the active noun is now?
Right.
Okay. Then where does the active noun go?
That’s the next step. You have two options: A) put it after the verb.
Where the passive noun used to be?
That’s usually the best place.
Also, we need to add the word ‘by’ just before the noun.
So what have we got now?
“Thanksgiving … celebrate … by Americans.”
And “Bigfoot … saw … by some people … near here.”
What’s the other option for Step 2?
Throw the active noun away. We might not need it anymore.
Really?
You tell me. In the top sentence, who celebrates Thanksgiving?
The Americans.
Is that important?
Probably.
Probably. So let’s keep it.
In the bottom sentence, who saw Bigfoot?
Some people.
Right, but which people?
I don’t know. Just … some people.
If you don’t know, then why is it in the sentence?
Oh, so let’s throw that one away.
Good idea.
Cool, we’re half-way there!
Step three: Add ‘to be’ in front of the main verb.
What are the forms of ‘to be’?
am, is, are
was, were
be, being, been
Thanks for the reminder.
Now in the top sentence, the verb is in the present tense. What is ‘to be’ present?
'am', 'is', or 'are'.
Okay. “Thanksgiving am”, “Thanksgiving is”, or “Thanksgiving are”?
“Thanksgiving is”.
Correct.
In the bottom sentence, the verb is past.
So we should use 'was' or 'were'.
“Bigfoot was”, or “Bigfoot were”?
'was'
That’s it. Got it?
Yep.
Last step: Change the main verb to the past participle form, or Verb 3.
What’s the main verb on the top?
‘celebrate’
And what’s the past participle of 'celebrate'?
'celebrated'
Yes. So let’s add the ‘d’ at the end.
Okay.
On the bottom, our verb is ‘saw’.
'see', 'saw', 'seen'
Exactly. Change it to ‘seen’. What are our sentences now?
“Thanksgiving is celebrated by Americans,” … and “Bigfoot was seen near here.” Is that it?
That's it!
Since the order of words changed, we need to make sure the correct letters are capitalized, but then you’re done!
That’s not too hard.
Good, because now it’s your turn.
Oh no.
It’s okay. You’ll do fine.
Here’s our new sentence.
“Thomas Edison invented the light bulb in 1879.”
Which noun is the passive noun?
‘light bulb’. And ‘Thomas Edison’ is the active noun.
Very good. Step 1, put the passive noun before the verb.
Okay.
Step 2, throw the active noun away …
or … put it after the verb, and add the word ‘by’.
Hm. ‘Thomas Edison’ is still important, I think, in this sentence. So I guess I’ll keep it.
Good idea. Step 3, add ‘to be’.
The main verb is past, so we should say “the light bulb was”.
Great. Step 4, change the main verb to the past participle form.
That’s just with ‘-ed’ at the end. So it doesn’t really change.
That’s right. So what’s the whole thing?
“The light bulb was invented by Thomas Edison in 1879.”
Exactly. Congratulations, you changed the whole structure of the sentence by yourself,
and in less than 60 seconds!
Cool!
So, this makes sense now, but how often will I really use it?
Oh, it’s used all the time. Some great examples are news stories.
They often focus on what is happening, or how people are affected by what is happening.
Sometimes that’s more important than why it’s happening, or who started it.
Oh.
So a lot of disasters and emergencies use the Passive Form.
Also, crime and punishment verbs.
That makes sense, I guess.
Inventions and discoveries.
Or where things come from, how they are used, what they are made of, things like that.
Okay.
Other things include: what you call things;
what others let you do; even what you were taught by parents or teachers;
or customs and languages in different cultures and countries.
Wow, that’s a long list.
Yeah, so you can see it’s really useful to know the Passive Voice.
And now I know it.
Yay!