[Music]
hello I'm Emma from English
this lesson is at the top of my request
list so many of you have been asking me
for a lesson about the passive voice so
I'm glad that I finally got it ready for
you now this can be a really confusing
grammar structure in English lots of my
students ask what's the point of the
passive voice is it really that
important
yes
understanding the passive voice is
important in this lesson you'll learn
what it looks like why it's useful and
you'll practice using it with me the
passive voice is used often by native
English speakers it's a mistake to think
that it's only used in formal speech
it's also used informally quite a bit so
stay with me through this entire lesson
keep focused it's not that long before
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prizes that we've got going on so why
should you use the passive voice
well there are times when you don't want
to say who or what did the action maybe
you're trying to avoid responsibility
for something you did or you don't want
to get your mate into trouble or maybe
you don't know who did the action or
because actually the object is the most
important or the most interesting part
of the sentence so that's the thing that
the action is happening - not the thing
that is doing the action you can use the
passive to change the focus of your
sentence
so let's go back a moment to understand
the passive voice I should really first
explain the active voice but you already
know it it looks like this
the children ate the cake
subject-verb-object
now most English sentences are more
complicated than this but we'll start
simply the subject does the action to
the object the children ate the cake now
imagine that you left for work in the
morning and there was a whole cake on
the kitchen table but by the time you
got home it had completely disappeared
you don't know who ate it I mean you
could probably guess but you don't know
where is this cake the cake was eaten by
somebody so the solution is to use the
passive voice because we don't know who
ate the cake now sometimes we're just
more interested in the object of the
sentence rather than the subject
English speakers frequently use the
passive voice
but this lesson isn't about English
speakers it's about the passive voice
it's the most important thing so we can
change it to say the passive voice is
frequently used by English speakers
now you'll often read passive sentences
in newspapers when the journalist can't
say who did something maybe because they
don't know who did it it's also used in
scientific reports and legal documents
because the information has to be
objective so often there is no subject
now some other really common passive
expression that you already know
be born we don't say my mother bore me
on June 23rd 1989 I
was born on June 23rd 1989 when your
friend tells you about his new colleague
he won't say people call him Tony he'll
say he's called Tony or he's named Tony
the stand was written by Stephen King
the
movie Deadpool was directed by Tim
Miller
the national anthem was sung by Fergie
in all of these really common examples
you can see the structure of the passive
voice the be verb followed by the past
participle huh I thought we only use the
past participle verb in the perfect
tenses
yeah we do use it in the perfect tenses
and in the passive voice if you see the
be verb followed by the past participle
form you know that this is a passive
sentence so let's go back to the first
example to explain the form of a passive
sentence if our active sentence is the
children ate the cake the passive
sentence is the cake was eaten by the
children the object of the active
sentence becomes the subject in the
passive sentence to make the object of
the active sentence become the subject
we actually need to change a few things
in our sentence so are you ready to
learn how to do that here's our active
sentence to make a passive sentence we
need to use the passive tense and there
are six steps to turn an active sentence
into a passive sentence now you might
want to take a notepad out so that you
can write them down as we go step one
identify the subject the verb and the
object
of the active sentence
step to move the object to become the
new subject of our sentence
step 3 check the active sentence what is
the verb tense in the active sentence
this is really important because the
passive voice exists across different
tenses so you must check what tense the
active sentence is in to make your
passive sentence correct
it's in the past simple the children ate
the cake
good step 4 conjugate the verb be so
that it's in the same tense as the main
verb in the active sentence we need to
change our be verb to the past simple so
it becomes was or were depending on the
new subject and our new subject is the
cake so we can choose was the cake was
step 5 add the past participle of the
main verb after
B so looking back at the active sentence
the main verb is eat though it's in past
simple form but can you think of the
past participle of eat
eaten right
now the last step step 6 you need to
decide what to do with the subject of
your active sentence the children in the
passive voice you don't have to include
the thing that is doing the action you
can completely remove that former
subject from your sentence and that's
helpful if you don't know who ate the
cake or you don't want to say who it was
or you don't care maybe it's not
important but you can add it to the end
of your sentence with the word buy
the cake was eaten by the children let's
look at some more examples together
the house was built in 1893
the car will be sold by the weekend
the washing have been left out in the
rain
many people's lives were saved
can you see the passive form here the be
verb is always there but it tells us the
tense it helps to describe when
something happened and
it also conjugates with the subject
people's lives were saved the house was
built and the be verb is always followed
by the past participle we can also
explain who or what did the action by
adding by
the house was built by her grandfather
this car will be sold by the salesman
the washing had been left out in the
rain by her husband
many people's lives were saved by the
volunteers
ok let's try a new sentence together I
want you to do this one with me please
can you remember the six steps
someone has stolen my neighbor's car
this is an active sentence
now can you remember step number one
it's easy identify the subject verb and
object
step 2 make the object the subject
step 3 tell me what tense is used in the
original active sentence
the present perfect tense
step 4 you need to conjugate the be verb
so that it's in the same tense
the neighbors car has been
we're using has because the subject is
now the car
Step five add the main verb in past
participle form
the neighbor's car has been stolen it's
the same verb as the original sentence
was also the past participle
step 6 decide do you need to include the
thing that did the action is it really
that important
maybe not because we don't really know
anything about who did it it's just
someone hmm I probably just leave it as
my neighbor's car has been stolen but if
we knew a little bit more about who or
what did it we could definitely include
it my neighbor's car has been stolen by
someone my neighbor's car has been
stolen by a monkey
so the passive form always includes the
be verb with the past participle and if
you need to include any information
about what or who did the action used by
okay I've got three more examples for
you to practice with
we made lots of money in 2002
lots of money was made by us in 2002 I
will clean the house on Monday
the house will
be cleaned by me on Monday
he built the house for his parents
the house was built by him for his
parents
okay now that's enough for this lesson
but there is actually a lot more to
practice about the passive voice like
how to use the negative forms and
questions
how to use modal verbs in the passive
voice how to include adverbs of mana to
explain how something is done
but there is enough information right
there for a whole new lesson so I'll get
to that
practice your passive sentences in the
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for another
English lesson bye for now