[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 we keep going
a quick little reminder to join the
English grammar challenge you’ll get to
practice the 10 most common grammar
mistakes that English learners make and
learn how to avoid them with me and if
you join and complete the challenge by
the end of May you could win one of the
many many 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
expressions 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 all
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 had 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
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
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 comments under
this video and make sure that you
subscribe to the English Channel
if you haven’t already just click that
red button down there then I can let you
know when I’ve got a new lesson ready
for you don’t forget to sign up to the
grammar challenge you can do that right
here sign up and complete the challenge
before the end of May
2018 and you could win there are
t-shirts to give away there are English
courses and five chances to meet me on
skype for conversation practice so come
and join and improve your grammar with
me that’s it for me today I’ll see you
next week for another English lesson bye for now
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 we keep going
a quick little reminder to join the
English grammar challenge you’ll get to
practice the 10 most common grammar
mistakes that English learners make and
learn how to avoid them with me and if
you join and complete the challenge by
the end of May you could win one of the
many many 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
expressions 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 all
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 had 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
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
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 comments under
this video and make sure that you
subscribe to the English Channel
if you haven’t already just click that
red button down there then I can let you
know when I’ve got a new lesson ready
for you don’t forget to sign up to the
grammar challenge you can do that right
here sign up and complete the challenge
before the end of May
2018 and you could win there are
t-shirts to give away there are English
courses and five chances to meet me on
skype for conversation practice so come
and join and improve your grammar with
me that’s it for me today I’ll see you
next week for another English lesson bye for now
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