passive in English
hi in today's lesson we're going to learn about the passive in English this
is the first in a series of three videos about the passive today we're going to
learn what is the passive why do we use it and how is it formed keep watching
until the end well there'll be a quiz to see how much you've learnt so first up
what is the passive here is a house somebody built this house in 2010 this
is an example of an active sentence the subject has performed the action of
building the house the object of the sentence whereas if we make the object
of the active sentence the subject the action happens to the subject this is
the passive this house was built in 2010 we use an active verb when we say what
the subject does here the subject is somebody we use a passive verb when we
say what happens to the subject this house was built in 2010 okay so when do
we use the passive firstly when the who or what that causes an action is unknown
or unimportant for instance my bags been stolen someone has stolen my bag but we
don't know whom or the toy was made in China people made the toy in China
however it's not our concern who made the toy we are interested in where it
was made secondly we use the passive when the
action is more important than who did it for example car tax was introduced in
England in 1921 the important thing is that car tax was introduced it is not
important who introduced it and finally when it's obvious who or what did
something for instance the thief has been arrested here obviously the police
have arrested the thief so how do we form the passive we used
the verb to be followed by the past participle the verb to be can be used in
all tenses but more on that in next week's video we can also use by plus the
person or thing to show who does the action if this information is important
the robber was seen by the police officer the police officer saw the
robber so what about if an active verb here has two objects a witness gave the
police some information so we have the police is an object and some information
is an object or a witness gave some information to the police this is the
same two objects but in a different order either object can be the subject
of a passive sentence so we can have the police were given some information by a
witness or some information was given to the police by a witness so let's look at
the passive forms of the present simple here we have somebody cleans this room
every day this is an active sentence where the subject somebody performs the
action ie cleans the room the object of the sentence the verb is
in the present tense to change this to a passive in the present tense we take the
object the room and make it the subject of the sentence and the action happens
to the subject the room is cleaned every day we put to be in the present tense
so is and add the past participle this is the passive form of the present
simple and the passive form of the past simple is very similar somebody cleaned
this room yesterday this is the active sentence in the past simple cleaned to
change it to a passive form of the past simple we use the past simple of the
verb to be so that in this case would be was plus the past participle so we get
this room was cleaned yesterday so now it's your turn change these
active sentences to passive ones one they canceled all the flights because of
the fog all the flights were canceled because of the fog so the object in the
active sentence becomes the subject in the passive one so all the flights is
now the subject then the verb in the active sentence is canceled this is in
the past simple so we need a passive in the past simple so we used to be in the
past simple were as it's a plural subject flights and then simply add the
past participle to people don't use this road much this road isn't used much so
the object in the active sentence Road becomes the subject in the passive one
and in the active sentence we're using the negative of the present simple of
the verb use so we put to be in the negative present tense and add the past
participle 3 somebody accused me of stealing money I was accused of stealing
money the object me in the active sentence now becomes the subject of the
passive one I here in the active sentence we have the verb accused which
is in the past simple so we need the past simple form of the verb to be was
and the past participle for how do people learn languages how our language
is learned or learnt here we have a question the object in the active
question languages becomes the subject and we have a present tense of the verb
learn so use the present tense of the verb to be plus the past participle
learn or learnt 5 somebody warned does not to go out alone write your answer in
the comment section down below and I promise to get back to you with an
answer are many guidance I can I can give
so that's it for now I hope you feel more confident using the passive in
English next week we'll have another video going into more depth remember to
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watching bye bye for now and see you very soon
passive in english