Passive Voice - English Lesson

[Music] hello and welcome everyone this is mino at angerlink today we're going to look at the passive voice in english first we'll have a look at when we use the passive voice and then we'll have a look at how to formulate passive sentences there's a part two as well where i have prepared some exercises for you in order to get good at using the passive voice you need a good mastery of all the english tenses so if you have any doubts about any of the tenses i would recommend that you watch my video called all tenses first and do the exercises that go with that video and then return to this one to learn the passive voice with me by the end of this lesson you'll have a good understanding of when to use the passive voice and how to formulate passive sentences right then when you're ready we can begin the passive voice what is the passive voice a sentence generally begins with a performer of the action which is the subject then the verb then the object or person that the action is performed on this is called an active sentence for example the subject is john the verb is cleaned and the object is the room now if we begin the sentence with the object or person that the action is performed on we formulate a passive sentence so starting with the object the room then adding the verb was cleaned and if we want to add the person the subject we can use by the room was cleaned by john note that not all verbs in english take an object therefore some sentences are complete without an object for example john slept well or john lives far away this type of sentence cannot be changed into the passive voice right let's have a look at when we should use the passive voice there are two main cases firstly when we do not know who the subject is or it's not important who the subject is for example somebody cleaned the room the room was clean or when it is obvious to the listener or reader who the subject is because it is the person who usually does it the cleaner cleaned the room the room was cleaned let's have a look at how we formulate the passive voice there are three steps first of all put the object of the verb at the beginning of your sentence then conjugate the verb to be in the same tense as the active sentence and finally put the main verb in the past participle form for example the active sentence is the postman delivers the mail get rid of the subject put the object at the beginning of your sentence conjugate the verb to be in the present simple tense is and put the main verb in its participle form delivered let's look at another example the decorator is painting my room here's the active sentence get rid of the subject put the object at the beginning the tense is present continuous so conjugate the verb to be in the present continuous tense is being and change to painted my room is being painted one more example someone stole the money get rid of the subject the object at the beginning the money conjugate the verb to be in the past simple tense was and change sto to the past participle form stolen the money was stolen a few notes first note if you want to mention the subject in a passive sentence use by my room is being painted by the decorator note 2 if the active sentence begins with no one or nobody the passive sentence will be negative for example no one turned on the light the light was not turned on and the final note if there is a preposition between the verb and the object the preposition will remain after the verb for example they talked about the issue the issue was talked about ok let's have a look at the passive voice of different tenses present simple active i do it passive it's done past simple i did it it was done future simple i will do it it will be done present continuous i am doing it it is being done past continuous i was doing it it was being done future continuous i will be doing it it will be being done present perfect i have done it it has been done past perfect i had done it it had been done future perfect i will have done it it will have been done present perfect continuous i have been doing it not common in fact perfect continuous tenses are very uncommon in the passive voice so like present perfect continuous we don't put past perfect continuous i had been doing it or future perfect continuous i will have been doing it in the passive voice keep these sentences to their active form right let's look at a couple of other structures in the passive in structures containing the infinitive do the passive is simply be done for example be going to i am going to do it changes into it is going to be done have to i have to do it changes into it has to be done used to i used to do it it used to be done and modal verbs like can and may with infinitive without to i can do it it can be done and the final structure in expressions containing the gerund doing the passive voice is with being done let's look at a couple of examples avoid i avoid seeing him the passive form would be he avoids being seen or with the expression i don't mind in the active form i don't mind teaching her in the passive form she doesn't mind being taught right let's look at a person in the object position we can also formulate passive sentences with a person in the object position for example somebody pushed me you can say i was pushed they have invited us we have been invited someone was interviewing jane jane was being interviewed some sentences have both an object and a person in the object position you can choose either one to formulate the passive sentence for example someone handed me a note you could say i was handed a note or a note was handed to me another example they have sent us a copy we have been sent a copy or a copy has been sent to us okay it's time to look at some common mistakes there are four common mistakes the first one is changing the tense to similar tense for example someone has reported the incidents this is present perfect it is a common mistake to say the incidents were reported changing it to the past simple keep it to the same tense present perfect the incidents have been reported or among future tenses for example the active sentence is they are going to build a church and you may hear a church will be built once again the tense has been changed from going to to will try and avoid that a church is going to be built look at the second common mistake which is forgetting the verb to be someone has reported the incidents you may hear the incidents have reported the verb to be is missing let's add it the incidents have been reported they're going to build a church a church is going to build the verb to be is missing a church is going to be built moving on to the third common mistake and that is using the present participle instead of the past participle someone has reported the incidents the incidents have been not reporting but reported or they're going to build a church a church is going to be not building but built and finally the fourth common mistake is confusing the plural and singular verbs or subjects for example someone has reported the incidents here someone is singular so the verb is has reported whereas the incidence is plural so you must say the incidents have been reported vice versa they're going to build a church a church not all going to be built because a church is singular so a church is going to be built right then that's the end of the lesson on the passive voice i hope you've enjoyed it as i said in the introduction i have prepared an exercise video for you if you'd like to practice what you've just learned just click on the video and as you know there are also explanations and exercises on our website anglilink.com thank you for watching i look forward to seeing you in our next video bye now

Channel: Anglo-Link

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Keywords: English, Passive, English Lesson, Lesson, Passive Voice, Passives in English, Passive Voice in English, Learn English, Grammar, English Grammar, English Grammar Lesson

Id: pxbQ2U3Uuv0

Length: 14min 29sec (869 seconds)

Published: Wed May 22 2013