Hi and welcome back to Love English I'm Leila and today I have got a grammar
lesson for you that's right today we're going to be looking at advanced English
grammar grammar that can help you sound more natural native and of course can
help you in your written work today's grammar point the passive voice yes
there is going to be a little bit of challenging grammar here but I know you
can do it if you concentrate whether you need to write academic English essays
formal letters or even a little bit of creative writing this grammar point is
really going to boost your language level so before we get started make sure
you do click that subscribe button and of course the notifications bell if you
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you'd like to learn more about me and Sabra then you can go to
so we are going to be covering quite a lot of grammar in today's lesson I
suggest you grab a pen and paper or pencil whichever you prefer
to take notes you are really going to want to study during this lesson you
need to actively participate in some of the exercises that I do so grab that pen
and paper and get ready to study now you'll probably be surprised to know
that the passive voice is very common in English in fact you've probably already
used it but you don't even realize it you certainly heard it before or even
read it perhaps in a newspaper or if you do read academic English you would
definitely have read a passive sentence so let's look at some common examples
everybody knows to say I was born in 1990 not my mother bore me in 1990 that
sounds a little bit strange he's called Simon he's called Simon not
people call him Simon very peculiar to say it like that there
are lots more common examples like that besides and we'll be taking a look at
those in a moment so what are we covering in today's lesson first why why
do we use the passive voice in English what is its function it's important to
note there are some specific situations that we would regularly use the passive
voice in secondly we'll be looking at how the passive voice is structured
we'll be looking at the difference between active and passive sentences in
English so this is going to be a great grammar review thirdly we'll be doing
some practice exercises within this lesson within this video so you'll want
to pay attention and actively try it to change some of these active sentences
that I give you into the passive I'll be teaching you six simple steps to change
the active into passive so you'll get plenty of practice in this lesson and
finally we'll be ending with a little bit of a quiz I will be giving you an
exercise in the comment section below that I would like you to copy and paste
into your comment and to complete the exercise and I will check your grammar
first what is the passive voice I keep talking
about it but let's just be clear exactly what the
difference is between an active sentence and a passive one in a very basic
English sentence you would have subject I verb kicked and an object all there we
have a transitive verb be aware that in the passive voice it is only really
transitive verbs verbs that take objects that we would transform into the passive
voice now when I want to change the sentence from active to passive I need
to move a few things around the subject goes to the end of the sentence it may
be that you don't even need to mention the subject the object goes to the
beginning of the sentence to form the new subject and the verb will be changed
from active in this case kicked is a past tense to the passive in this case
was kicked I'll be explaining that more in just a moment
the ball was kicked by me you might not even want to say by me you might just
want to say the ball was kicked now what we have done is we have changed the
focus from the subject to the object the ball becomes more important than the
person who kicked it ordinarily in English sentences the subject is more
important but in the passive voice the object is the focus of the sentence so
let's look at some reasons why we need to make the object the most important
thing in the sentence number one when you don't know who the subject is or
they're not very important you may not even want to mention the subject for
whatever reason my chocolates were eaten and might not know who ate my chocolates
someone ate my chocolates the active their passive a 25 year old woman was
murdered last night now this is a good example of a sentence you might see on a
newspaper headline where you don't know who committed the crime number two when
it's obvious who the person is when really the people that have done the
action or the person it's very clear and it doesn't need explaining for example
10 men were arrested now who can arrest a person a police
officer so if 10 men were arrested it is obvious
that police officers arrested 10 men now a very important reason why we use the
passive voice in academic and formal English is that it can sound more
impersonal and in academic and formal English it is very important to sound
impersonal not because you're sounding impolite but because you're trying to
sound polite and professional in fact so in academic English and business English
the passive voice in written form and indeed spoken can be really useful and
of course if you've taken the IELTS exam you'll know that the passive voice can
also be used for processes so some examples it has been brought to my
attention it has been brought to my attention not Bob from HR brought this
to my attention it could be suggested that it could be
suggested that again you wouldn't say people have suggested it's a really good
way of avoiding the personal pronoun I or indeed any personal pronouns in an
academic English essay the bottles are then filled with Cola the bottles are
then filled with Cola here we have a good example of a process how Coca Cola
bottles or Coca Cola is made so as I said before the job of the passive is to
change the focus from the subject to the object even if we know who the subject
is so be aware when we do include the original subject at the end of the
sentence or what we would call an agent at this point the agent of the sentence
we need to change to an object pronoun and we need to use the preposition by
it's very important that you do include that for example she ate my chocolates
she ate my chocolates there we have a nice clear example of an active sentence
but in passive my chocolates were eaten by her there we have the object pronoun
so just make sure when you do include the subject after the preposition by
that you make sure you change it to an object pronoun so just to refresh those
pronouns just remember subject he object him
subject she object her subject they object them subject we object us subject
I object me it's and you are the same in both subject and object so that's one
less to remember let's have a look at the steps we need to take in order to
transform active to passive looking at chocolate first sabra eats the
chocolates identify first the object in the sentence got it
that's right the chocolates bring that to the front of the sentence make it the
new subject then identify the main verb so in order to transform this verb from
active to passive we need to first use the verb to be in the present tense now
remember there are three forms of the present to be is am and are make sure
that you do conjugate your verbs with the noun if it's the plural you will
need our if it is he she it you will need is if it's I then you will need am
in this case the chocolates plural are so we use the verb are and then we take
the main verb and we put it into the past participle in this case eaten the
chocolates are eaten by Sabra or by her not she remember to use that object
pronoun Sabra ate the chocolates Sabra ate the chocolates here we've got the
past simple so the same thing identify the object move it to the front to make
the new subject the chocolates past tense of
be in the plural form the chocolates were plus past participial eaten by
Sabra the chocolates were eaten by Sabra
Sabra has eaten the chocolates what tense is it that's right the present
perfect now with the present perfect of course we do need to have the present
perfect tense in the passive form so we need to take the perfect tense and use
it with the verb to be so rather than has eaten we need have
being have been the chocolates have been pay attention we've conjugated the verb
there with the noun because we've gone from she Sabra to vey chocolates a
plural form the chocolates have been what do we need next the chocolates have
been eaten by Sabra next Sabra had eaten the chocolates
when I arrived let's change this in the same way this time you don't have to
worry about conjugating the verb because hat is the same with all mounts the
chocolates had been eaten by Sabra when I arrived so that was the past perfect
next Sabra will eat the chocolates Sabra will eat the chocolates future
simple change this the chocolates will be eaten the chocolates
will be eaten by Sabra let's really go advanced and look at the future perfect
Sabra will have eaten the chocolates Sabra will have eaten the chocolates the
chocolates will have been eaten Wow if you're still with us you're doing such a
great job we really are looking at some more complex sentences here and finally
be going to Sabra is going to eat the chocolates the chocolates are going to
be eaten you'll notice that I haven't included the present perfect continuous
or the past perfect continuous in actual fact we don't use the passive
voice with those sentences technically it's possible but it sounds very strange
let's look at an example he has been counting the money there
have an example of the present perfect continuous he has been counting the
money technically the correct passive form would be the money has been being
counted Wow does that sound strange to you it does
to me now really with the present perfect continuous and the past perfect
continuous the focus is on the action more and in this case it would make more
sense for us to focus on the action using the present continuous the money
is being counted the money is being counted so at least that's one less
thing you have to learn you wouldn't be using the present perfect continuous or
past perfect continuous in the passive tense at least not that I can think of
any examples so let's review those six steps of changing a passive sentence to
an active number one identify the subject object and verb in the sentence
number two move the object to the front of the sentence to make it the new
subject number three check the verb tense is it present simple is it be
going to future perfect present perfect make sure you know which tense you're
dealing with number four conjugate the verb to be with the new subject of the
sentence so it is the same tense as the verb in the active sentence number five
adds the past participle of the main verb so it becomes eaten do becomes done
swim becomes swamp make sure you refresh and check your past participles and
finally number six if you do want to keep the subject in the sentence it
becomes the agent at the end by adding by now remember before you change any
sentence from active to passive do check that you actually need to do it is there
a good reason any of the three reasons I gave you before do you not know who the
subject is or is it not important is it obviously the subject is and the focus
needs to be more on the object or are you using it for more academic and
formal purposes are you trying to be more impersonal in your written form or
even spoken form of English
so here we go a little bit of practice I want you to do with me using those six
steps can you transform these sentences into the passive number one builders
built a big ban in 1843 identify the subject object and verb take the object
to the front of the sentence conjugate the verb to be with the new subject in
the tense of the original active sentence add the past participle of the
main verb and then if you want to add the subject by big ban was built in 1843
next these ones you're on your own one day scientists will discover a cure
for the common cold one day scientists will discover a cure
for the common cold one day a cure for the common cold will be discovered some
people have found a world war to bomb a
World War two bomb has been found the police arrested Sabra the police
arrested Sabra Sabra come on was arrested Leyla is going to kill Sabra
Leila is going to kill Sabra for eating her chocolates
Sabra come on is going to be killed by Leila not true don't worry I'm not that
serious when it comes to chocolate so how did you do are you feeling confident
are those six steps helping you to transform an active sentence into a
passive so over to you I am going to give you ten sentences in the comments
section below copy and paste them into your comments
box and I want you to change those sentences from active to passive see if
you can take the love English grammar challenge I'll respond with the answers
and correct your English that's it guys a bit of a meaty lesson if you've lasted
all the way to the end thank you so much and well done you are definitely a
serious English language learner so look forward to seeing you for lots more
grammar practice with love English don't forget do your homework below