The PASSIVE in English - WHEN, WHY and HOW to use it - English Grammar Lesson

passive in English hi in today's lesson we're going to learn about the passive in English this is the first in a series of three videos about the passive today we're going to learn what is the passive why do we use it and how is it formed keep watching until the end well there'll be a quiz to see how much you've learnt so first up what is the passive here is a house somebody built this house in 2010 this is an example of an active sentence the subject has performed the action of building the house the object of the sentence whereas if we make the object of the active sentence the subject the action happens to the subject this is the passive this house was built in 2010 we use an active verb when we say what the subject does here the subject is somebody we use a passive verb when we say what happens to the subject this house was built in 2010 okay so when do we use the passive firstly when the who or what that causes an action is unknown or unimportant for instance my bags been stolen someone has stolen my bag but we don't know whom or the toy was made in China people made the toy in China however it's not our concern who made the toy we are interested in where it was made secondly we use the passive when the action is more important than who did it for example car tax was introduced in England in 1921 the important thing is that car tax was introduced it is not important who introduced it and finally when it's obvious who or what did something for instance the thief has been arrested here obviously the police have arrested the thief so how do we form the passive we used the verb to be followed by the past participle the verb to be can be used in all tenses but more on that in next week's video we can also use by plus the person or thing to show who does the action if this information is important the robber was seen by the police officer the police officer saw the robber so what about if an active verb here has two objects a witness gave the police some information so we have the police is an object and some information is an object or a witness gave some information to the police this is the same two objects but in a different order either object can be the subject of a passive sentence so we can have the police were given some information by a witness or some information was given to the police by a witness so let's look at the passive forms of the present simple here we have somebody cleans this room every day this is an active sentence where the subject somebody performs the action ie cleans the room the object of the sentence the verb is in the present tense to change this to a passive in the present tense we take the object the room and make it the subject of the sentence and the action happens to the subject the room is cleaned every day we put to be in the present tense so is and add the past participle this is the passive form of the present simple and the passive form of the past simple is very similar somebody cleaned this room yesterday this is the active sentence in the past simple cleaned to change it to a passive form of the past simple we use the past simple of the verb to be so that in this case would be was plus the past participle so we get this room was cleaned yesterday so now it's your turn change these active sentences to passive ones one they canceled all the flights because of the fog all the flights were canceled because of the fog so the object in the active sentence becomes the subject in the passive one so all the flights is now the subject then the verb in the active sentence is canceled this is in the past simple so we need a passive in the past simple so we used to be in the past simple were as it's a plural subject flights and then simply add the past participle to people don't use this road much this road isn't used much so the object in the active sentence Road becomes the subject in the passive one and in the active sentence we're using the negative of the present simple of the verb use so we put to be in the negative present tense and add the past participle 3 somebody accused me of stealing money I was accused of stealing money the object me in the active sentence now becomes the subject of the passive one I here in the active sentence we have the verb accused which is in the past simple so we need the past simple form of the verb to be was and the past participle for how do people learn languages how our language is learned or learnt here we have a question the object in the active question languages becomes the subject and we have a present tense of the verb learn so use the present tense of the verb to be plus the past participle learn or learnt 5 somebody warned does not to go out alone write your answer in the comment section down below and I promise to get back to you with an answer are many guidance I can I can give so that's it for now I hope you feel more confident using the passive in English next week we'll have another video going into more depth remember to like this video if you found it useful and share it with your family and friends learning English they'll thank you for it and don't forget to subscribe so it's not to miss out on any new english language videos thank you for watching bye bye for now and see you very soon passive in english

Channel: Oxford English Now

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Keywords: passive in english, passive english, passive voice, active and passive voice, passive form, passive sentences, passive verbs, active voice and passive voice, active passive voice, passive voice exercises, passive voice examples, passive tense, the passive voice, active and passive, active passive, passive grammar, passive exercises, present passive, passive, passive voice grammar, active and passive voice examples, past passive, active voice examples

Id: RTpk1S9s8pc

Length: 7min 6sec (426 seconds)

Published: Fri May 10 2019