English Grammar: The Passive Voice (IELTS TOEFL Writing)

everybody welcome to write to the top I'm Adam in today's video I'm gonna continue speaking to you about adding complexity to your writing so we're gonna look at some grammar but more specifically we're gonna look at the passive voice now recently I made a video about how to add complexity to your writing and one of the different things I mentioned were the specific structures the complex structures like the causative the subjunctive etc and one of them was the passive so today we're going to look at how to use the passive in terms of construction how to build one when to use it okay in what situations it's a good idea to use it and then when to avoid it when you shouldn't use it and especially the avoiding one this is the most applicable to a lot of you out there because a lot of you are using the passive when you really shouldn't be just for word count but I'll get into the details as we go so let's start with the construction how to build a passive structure okay so we're gonna start with the beaver you're gonna have a be verb plus a past participle this is the third verb eat ate eaten eaten is the past participle notice that I have a little asterisks here a little star there because you're gonna be using the beaver but not always there are exceptions okay I'll show you what those exceptions are in a moment and make sure that the be verb is the verb that takes the tense okay again intense verbs past present future the be verb is the one taking the tense not the past participle now a few highlights of the passive and I don't worry I'm gonna show you examples of all of these as well the subject remember in the passive the subject of the clause or the sentence is receiving the action it is not doing the action it is not responsible for the action the action is coming to it it is taking the action it the subject in a passive sentence was the object in an active sentence and show you that as well again use it with all the tenses but again another double asterisks here one tense you shouldn't use it with and I'll show you that one as well you can use it with other verb forms and you can use the infinitive or the base B so if you're using the passive with other verbs like modal verbs then you're not gonna be putting a tense on the beaver the be verb is infinitive or base and I'll show you the examples of that you can combine it with other structures like the causative or the subjunctive and again the causative there's no be verb in there and I'll show you an example of that and you can use it in a reduced cause basically you're creating a participle or a participle phrase now this means that this used to be a full clause with a be verb but you took out the conjunction you took out the be verb you're left with a participle so let's look at examples of all of these okay so let's start with a basic or simple active sentence the company increased output to meet growing demand the company is the subject increased output so increased this is the action that the company did output that's the object increased what the output and why to meet growing demand not so important at this point active sentence subject doing the verb to the object in us in the passive sentence the object is now the subject it is going to receive the action so output was increased now I don't need to mention by the company I don't need to mention an agent okay once the original subject in the active sentence goes into the passive it is now called an agent sometimes it's necessary sometimes it's not and we'll talk about that in a moment as well so here our output was increased it's kind of clear that it's the company that did it or whoever is responsible for the output or it's just not important so I can take the agent out output was increased to meet growing demand so I have the simple past verb was because that's the past verb of be increased doesn't change this is a regular verb edie verb increase increased increased okay output is generally increased according to demand simple present verb when demand goes up output goes up when it goes down it goes output goes down so is increased simple verb is is a simple present verb of B output will be increased if demand grows will be future increased doesn't change in order for output to be increased there must first be an increase in demand so here I don't even have a clause I'm using to be increased as an infinitive passive okay for output to be increased infinitive there's no agent there's no subject verb etc there must first be an increase and then you have your actual independent clause following that so this is part of the complement infinitive passive complement okay so you see all the tenses plus infinitive and the be verb adjusts accordingly now past continuous was being done present continuous is being done notice that we don't have or we don't use a future continuous will be being done it's just unnecessary we just say we'll be done for the future so don't use a future continuous passive that's the only tense that doesn't it doesn't really apply to now a note and this is very is where a lot of people make mistakes when it comes to the passive in terms of the reading or in terms of their writing B verb plus a present participle which means a verb in an ING form is gonna be a continuous tense okay he is playing continuous tense active not passive if you have B plus being plus an adjective for example he is being helpful it's also a continuous active tense it's not a passive so be very careful a lot of people get confused with the is being they automatically think that it's a passive the only time you're joining a be verb with an active verb is in the continuous tense or in the passive make sure you know which one you're dealing with okay so let's go on to the next one had been fixed past perfect we have had we have to still have the bean bean is the past participle and I still have another past participle so with the perfect tenses you have to past participles the be the be verb takes the perfect tense had been fixed has been fixed have been fixed will have been fixed past present future perfect tenses now here I'm joining it with other verbs must must is a modal must be considered because after must there's no tense you take the base verb must be considered should have been given so should is the modal have is the base being as the base given is the participle is going to going to be future but we have the infinitive to be given okay still passive and is to be given this is part of the causative and I'll talk about that in a moment so you see passive applies to all the different tenses and it can be combined with other verbs make sure that you always have a be verb when necessary make sure that you don't come confuse present participles with past participles active and passive make sure that the be verb is joining a past participle to make a passive those are the key highlights now let's look at the causative so again remember the asterisk from a couple pages ago the company will have the package delivered to your door the company will have the package delivered by the courier to your door again I don't need to mention the agent unless it's important but I'm using a passive here so we'll have it just for future the or the company had the package delivered notice that I don't have a beaver in the causative it's just unnecessary and again you can have all tenses had the package delivered in is having has the package delivered etc the be verb is going the only time you use the be verb is for the continuous is having the package delivered subjunctive and I'll make a separate video about the causative this might be a little bit confusing because you have in a in a causative sentence you have a subject you have ad you have an agent you have two verbs it's a little tricky I'll make a video about that the subjunctive I already made a video you can check the link up here it is important that engineers be given so here we have the B as the base B okay in the subjunctive after the that clause begins that subject base verb in the passive the base verb is the be verb plus the past participle and in a participle so a research that was conducted when I have when the conjunction of the adjective cause is also the subject and it's followed by a be verb I can take them out okay just take them out of the out of the clause entirely have a reduced cause that becomes a part phrase research conducted at Harvard University shows that so conducted at Harvard that's your participle clause and again no be verb needed here I took it out in the participle now another note to be careful about you know this is where people get confused as well sometimes you can see a be verb plus an adjective participle not a verb this it's technically a verb but it's acting as an adjective so it's a little bit tricky it's not a passive it's not considered a passive management is disappointed with the latest results management is feeling disappointed right so disappointed is not a verb it's an adjective disappointed disappointing bored boring confused confusing make sure you know the difference between Edie and I and G adjectives okay so here this is not a passive this is an active sentence management is okay what is it like I am Canadian it's an active sentence there's nothing going on it's just a situation management is what what's the situation disappointed why or with what etc the shirt was worn through worn through means it was liked had holes and stuff because it was used so much old shirt used a lot starting to show patches and holes but again active sentence not passive be very careful about that be especially careful about this situation in the reading section because they will try to trick you with especially when you have like a sentence in the reading in the question and then you have to match it to that sentence in the passage and they're gonna play with your understanding of the passive to see if you understand what's going on so pay attention to that okay a little tip there for the reading section okay now when to use it and this is probably the most important by now if you're taking the IELTS or the TOEFL you're you're not a beginner english learner you're past that stage you're out of the ESL class you're in the IELTS class you're in the TOEFL class they already assume that you know how to use the passive like how to construct it how to understand it when to use it that's a different matter this is where a lot of people get in trouble now a lot of teachers will also tell you don't use the passive okay it's it's poor its weak it's whatever bad English it's not passive structured the passive structure is just a tool among many tools you have to write with use it just use it appropriately and correctly so the main reason to use it is for variety if you have like active sentences active sentences active sentences and there are simple sentences you don't have any variety passive just gives you a little bit of variety just show other structures that way the reader also doesn't get bored if it's all the same type of sentences okay so you use it for sentence variety structure variety add complexity to your writing and to condense sentences to shrink two sentences into one and you can use the passive to do that as well if you want to change the subject if the subject of the person or thing doing the action is really not important take it out use this the passive and focus on the important information right if the subject is unknown then how you gonna write you can use there or it or they a little bit weak sentence it's better to use the passive and put a strong subject in rather than a weak one if the subject is single person doing the action is irrelevant or not important take it out if it's obvious if the reader can understand without being told take it out okay remove acting agents so if the agent if the thing doing the action is not important get rid of it use the passive this is the one I especially want you to pay attention to how to use the passive is a cohesive device to add cohesion to link ideas to link sentences together I'm gonna show you an example but as a cohesive device you're actually getting too benefits out of a passive one you're getting the variety in terms of the grammar your grammatical range and accuracy score so you're showing variety you're showing ability with the grammar but you're also showing good cohesion right your ideas connect and flow well together and again this is a little bit trickier so I'll show you the example in a moment or to shift focus link sentences shift focus the last one I put this in bracket because this is for much more advanced writers this is not something you need to consider so much for the IELTS or TOEFL but just so you understand we can use the passive to slow the pace of the reading so for example if you have like a few short sentences short simple short simple short simple sentence it reads very quickly so if you suddenly want to slow down the reading like for the reader to slow down you present a longer sentence and one way to do that is to use a introduce that sentence with a passive while it can easily be argued that something something and then you go on to the contrast after that right so then you have a complex long sentence that really slows down the pace don't worry too much about this again advanced more advanced riders more advanced writing not necessarily IELTS or TOEFL essay okay variety a government has a duty to develop infrastructure this was this will allow an economy to prosper and for citizens to gain more from it simple sentence simple sentence if a government introduces better transportation services for example they can help increase productivity by minimizing traffic congestion and thereby reducing workers commute time and stress levels complex sentence complex structure so two simples one complex forty nine words not bad not wrong but here's an opportunity to show a little variety use a little something different and help already start condensing so here's a here's a rewrite of the same idea I took out nine words so I made it shorter I changed some of the other words I changed some of the or I kept the message though and I only have two sentences instead of three and both of them are complex sentences now a nation in which transportation infrastructure for example is sufficiently developed can increase worker productivity by reducing commute times and workers stress levels thus the government is obliged to promote this development thereby improving the economy and its citizens benefits so okay obviously I changed some of the wording again wording is very important but I also put in a passive just to help me squeeze more information into a tighter spot okay and that's why I'm using it for and I have two complex sentences which will get me a higher score on the bye from the graders okay now let's talk about the subject studies conducted at X University by the country's leading sociologists confirm that Y do that just put them as subjects if you don't need so here studies conducted at X University by all these people right now there's not really no purpose to it you can may have a much stronger sentence by just putting in the sociologists first and again the thing to remember is you're actually putting a little bit of an emphasis on them so it's important to understand are they important or not but remember this sentence I'm gonna come back to it cohesion very very important so I have to put a little bit tricky but you'll understand when I explain it one we're talking about obesity and how to some causes and solutions to a childhood of obesity and how to yeah solutions anyway so one possible solution to childhood obesity is to make it more difficult for them to consume products of high empty calorie content if schools for example removed sugary drinks from their cafeterias children would no longer be able to access them on a regular basis so now again not wrong can be better how the last thing I mentioned in the first is products of high empty calorie content the first thing I mentioned in the second sentence is schools there's no connection between these two ideas so what I want to do is I want to bring these sugary drinks closer to products of high calorie content because the sugary drinks are an example of this type of product so I want to make that link closer and right away and stronger how do I do that I use a passive ok if sugary drinks for example were removed from school cafeterias and then I go on so right away I end with products of high calorie content and I begin with sugary drinks right away there's a link a very clear cohesive link between one idea and the next and how did I do that just by moving it into a passive form and putting the drinks as the subject instead of the schools because the schools are not important the drinks are important and this will get you higher score on the cohesion and coherence category of the scoring and sometimes just do you want to just shrink sentences okay many companies these days prefer job candidates with good qualifications and strong interpersonal skills this is because these workers can do whatever they can do right so I have a lot of useless information here squeeze it all into one passive sentence job candidates with good qualifications and strong interpersonal skills are preferred well if their job candidates then who prefers them the hiring the employers the companies so I don't need to mention it prefer these are preferred these days because they can so right away I can go straight to they because it's job candidates and there's nothing else I can really connect to and I have job candidates as the subject they as the subject of the next clause right so it's a lot smoother it's a lot tighter it's a lot shorter okay that's why we would use the passive our preferred now when should you not use the passive and this is also very very important okay this is costing you points and this is very common a lot of people are doing this on their essays right when it's not necessary now you're thinking well when is it not necessary right well if it serves no purpose or if the active voice would work better then it's unnecessary but this is especially if it serves no purpose if you're just using it to get your word count up the graders know that your professors in University know that it's a waste of words the passive in some structures can just be a waste of words use those extra words to say important things right if the active voice is better and shorter use it okay and it's also stronger in most cases so make sure you there's a reason for using it so here are a couple of examples and I mentioned this one before research conducted at X University has found that so here I'm using the passive participle why not just say researchers have found that research conducted at is unnecessary just say researchers found obviously the researchers did research they conducted research I don't need to mention it it's a waste of a word okay but again not wrong just a waste studies conducted by the country's leading sociologists if you're not going to mention these sociologists again in your essay that means they're not important okay so two things sociologists confirm that if you want to mention who confirmed it just to give it a little bit of support just say sociologists who cares if they're leading or not you have an active sentence you get right away to the main idea which is that university graduates half of them don't end up in their field use a passive get get rid of this information as quickly as possible focus on the main idea okay now these expressions especially I every time a student sends me an essay to check and I see this cross it across that I'll cross it out it is believed by some people that seven words why not just say some people believe this is not important these this beginning is not important what comes after that is important you want to get to it more quickly the more words you have before that the more you lose the reader's attention get to it as quickly as possible active short move on in the IELTS task 1 this is a very common thing I see it can be seen in the graph that 30 percent or it can be seen in the graph first of all you introduced what we're looking at in the introduction paragraph everything that comes in the body is from the graph you don't need to tell me that and you especially don't need to tell me that in a passive form if you really feel you need to introduce the graph according to the graph just say that and then just get to your actual point quickly this looks like it's just try to build the word count to get to your minimum it's not gonna work the graders know what you're doing you're gonna actually lose points not gain points for this passive for these passive structures okay and that's it I know a lot of information there but the passive can be very useful if used correctly if used in the right context and the right situations I suppose you could say that there are necessary and that they are better than an active voice in eight out of ten situations the active is better the two situations that the a passive is better use it okay but use it correctly now if you have any questions about this video please ask me in the youtube comments section don't forget to read each other's comments I will answer the more popular questions at the end of the month in the Q & A if you like this video please subscribe to my channel and give me a like if you liked it as well and I'll see you again next week with another lesson see you then bye bye

Channel: Write to the Top

Views: 61,501

Keywords: IELTS, TOEFL, English writing, writing skills, language test, English grammar, English vocabulary, high score, how to write an essay, essay writing, test tips, the passive voice, task 2 essay, IELTS writing, TOEFL writing, complex English structures, cohesive device, better English writing, advanced grammar, TeacherAdam, EngvidAdam

Id: HfKArXZtbXI

Length: 25min 50sec (1550 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 02 2019