London which is right next to Buckingham
Palace
it’s all blurry you can’t really see it
but trust me that is Buckingham Palace
[Music]
the passive form what is it why do we
use it
hey dude what are you doing
me I’m just enjoying the water and the
Sun oh that’s nice
some water Sun it’s all very relaxing
and what happening what what oh man
something bit me Oh me that sucks
ah what bit you I don’t know
ah is it bleeding bad oh that’s pretty
bad huh oh I don’t I don’t feel good
it’s awful well let me take your mind
off that for a second
in English what is the structure of a
sentence what sentence structure oh I I
really don’t want to talk about grammar
oh come on we’re doing a lesson what do
I need I don’t know it’s a subject and a
verb good and what else an object an
object please get an ambulance or
something yeah yeah an ambulance great
idea I’ll phone a helicopter or
something but first that sentence ah you
said something bit me what yeah I think
a shark bit me hmm you sure it was a
shark dude it’s the ocean sharks bite
maybe it was a shark maybe it was Nemo
maybe it was me so if you don’t know the
subject the action is more important you
should use there why haven’t you called
an ambulance that’s right
the passive form so something bit me
becomes I was bitten by something or
just I was bitten blah so something bit
me
that’s an active sentence and it changes
too I was bitten by something a passive
sentence now this happened in the past
so that version of B will be a past
tense was a were well the subject is I
so it’s not were was I was and that verb
will always be in verb three the past
participle it doesn’t matter if it’s a
future tense past tense or present tense
that verb is always verb three past
participle so bite it’s always bitten I
was bitten be careful and remember that
when you use a passive voice it
completely changes the direction of the
verb so let me give you an example this
sentence is an active sentence zombie is
biting me it’s used the same subject but
change it to passive now it means this
come here zombie zombie is being bitten
by me so be careful it completely
changes who receives the action so why
do we use the passive is it just a sound
more formal I mean yeah it does sound
more formal but that’s not the only
reason we already learned one reason
it’s because we don’t know the subject
something bit me I was bitten by
something maybe we don’t know it or
maybe it’s just really really obvious
like this example you are being arrested
who by haha I’m sorry in both cases the
action is more important the action is
the focus of the sentence if there is
one last reason and this could be more
useful in social situations or political
situations let’s see the passive voice
first I acknowledge that mistakes were
made here and he’s right mistakes were
made mistakes were made here a serious
mistake was made clearly mistakes were
made hmm interesting
let’s hear the active voice I think I
made a mistake yeah I take
responsibility for it and there you have
it in an active voice you can see the
subject taking responsibility for the
action where it’s in the passive voice
you can’t avoid responsibility so maybe
you want to avoid responsibility for
inaction you can use the passive voice
I’m gonna go knock on the Queen’s door
see if she wants to come out and play [Music]