How to Use Passive Voice in Everyday Situations in English

oh hi everybody welcome back to our

weekly live stream my name is Alisha and

today we’re going to talk about active

voice and passive voice in English today

will be a good grammar lesson a good

chance to review some things I’m going

to talk about the differences between

active voice and passive voice I’m going

to share with you how to change a really

really simple way I hope that you can

change from active voice to passive

voice and then I’m going to talk about

when you should use these so a lot of

people have asked me questions about

these two grammar points so today I hope

will be a good lesson for everybody as

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yeah yeah all right so I’ll recap

today’s topic is active voice versus

passive voice active voice versus

passive voice mr. graphic there we go

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alrighty so let’s get started with the

difference between active and passive

let’s start over here first what is

active voice what is passive voice let’s

talk about what these topics what these

things even are I’m going to slow down a

little bit too so first active voice

what is active voice so active voice is

something it’s like a way of speaking or

a way of writing you can think of it

kind of like a style that you use so in

active voice sentences the focus of the

sentence is the person or the thing

doing the action we want to focus on

like the person doing something that’s

our focus for the sentence or the thing

that is doing something so the actor so

in this case actor does not mean like

famous person in a movie

it means the person or the thing doing

the action that is the subject of the

sentence so maybe you remember an

English word order we have

subject-verb-object

so subject-verb-object is the the order

in which the parts of the sentence are

organized so let’s take a look at a

couple of basic examples of this active

voice sentences are for example I wrote

an email so very simple sentence who

wrote the email I did

I am the actor I’m the person doing

something my verb is wrote past tense of

right and then my object is an email I

wrote an email this is a simple active

voice sentence second example here he

called some friends he called some

friends so again in this case my focus

is the person doing the activity the

actor in the sentence my verb here is

called past tense of call so to call

means like to call someone on the phone

and then some friends some friends so

these are the things female and friends

these are the things that are like

receiving the action yeah so they are

affected by the action here done by the

subject so this is active voice so

active voice in English looks like this

let’s compare this then to passive voice

passive voice so what is passive voice

so passive voice is different from

active voice in that in passive voice

sentences the focus is the person or the

thing receiving the action the person

are the thing receiving the action so in

these sentences our focus is the person

or the thing doing the action in passive

voice sentences we want to focus on the

thing receiving the action so the person

or the thing receiving the action is the

subject so we can kind of imagine a

little bit these sentences are kind of

the opposite in some

okay so some example is them I’ve

changed these sentences these active

voice sentences into passive voice

sentences so here an email was written

this is a passive voice sentence and

email was written so we don’t know or we

don’t care about the person who did it

we want to focus on the result here an

email was written an email was written

second some friends were called some

friends were called so again we don’t

know who did the action we don’t want to

focus on that we want to focus on like

the result or we want to focus on the

thing that received the action so how do

we make passive voice to make a passive

voice expression you can use this is a

basic pattern I’m going to show you how

to change between the two in part two of

today’s lesson so here to make a passive

voice expression use your subject plus

the verb to be plus the past participle

form of a verb so subject in this case

is an email in this example sentence my

B verb is was because I’m talking about

a past situation and the past participle

form of write is written written so an

email was written an email was written

the other example here this is a plural

subject so plural subject means there’s

more than one of something it’s plural

so some friends my subject be here I’m

using were were because plural subject

some friends and then call becomes

called in the past participle form so

this is the difference between active

voice and passive voice in terms of

grammar in terms of the what we want to

communicate so some examples I saw some

examples coming in Andrew says the

decorations for the party were created

yes by Alicia so if you want to you can

attach the person the actor at the end

of the sentence

have to sik eraser says the slipper was

nibbled good so maybe like your dog or

like your cat or somebody nibbled on a

slipper that’s funny some examples on

Facebook someone says there’s a problem

and focusing I don’t know I don’t see

any examples on Facebook yet so come on

Facebook I don’t see anything lots of

people saying hello some active

sentences bori says she does her

homework every night so we’re going to

practice in part two today how to change

your active voice sentence into a

passive sentence so I hope you can

practice that I don’t see much in terms

of examples in you’re good I don’t think

much in terms of example sentences

alrighty cool so please get ready to

practice then changing active to passive

in part two of today’s lesson we’ll take

a quick break and then we’ll continue on

to that so I hope that part two is very

helpful for many people today all right

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showed you at the beginning of today’s

lesson the three things that you can

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these are free PDFs

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part two of today’s lesson someone says

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share this video so that other people

can find today’s lesson I have shared it

someone else has just shared it thank

you so let’s get to part two part two of

today’s lesson if you’re just joining um

today’s topic is active voice versus

passive voice now next I’m going to

share I hope some something that’s

helpful many of you have asked me about

this how to convert meaning how to

change your active sentence to a passive

sentence so I will move I’ll probably

move in between maybe it’s better to go

over here okay I’ll do this so changing

active to passive let’s talk about this

I explained in part one today that when

we make an active voice sentence we have

this subject-verb-object pattern right

so I talked about this like I wrote an

email or whatever we’re men with a very

basic sentence so for example if my

subject is she mailed a letter I have

that same pattern yeah

subject verb past tense object a letter

the thing receiving the action another

example we ate all of the cookies so

again subject my verb past tense all of

the cookies receives this action so how

do we change this these sentences here

are active voice sentences but if we

want to change an active voice sentence

to a passive voice sentence how do we do

that first of all you need to make sure

that you have these parts of your

sentence so sometimes you I see your

comments and you write to me like how do

I make this passive but there’s no

object in your sentence you need that

object so to do this first take your

object so take the object of the

sentence in this case a letter or all of

the cookies in my example sentences move

these then in your passive sentence

the subject position so here we’re

making a passive voice sentence down

here so move your object move the object

of your sentence into the subject

position here so now my subject becomes

a letter or all of the cookies so that’s

step one do when we make passive voice

sentences I explained in part one today

that the next part is B we use a to be

verb so your be verb should be the same

tense as the verb in the active voice

sentence so in this case these are both

past tense mailed and ate these are both

past tense verbs so B in this sentence

should also be past tense

so that means was or were but make sure

your past tense verb matches your

subject by that I mean if your subject

is singular one a letter your verb

should be was singular a letter was if

your verb I’m sorry if your subject is

plural as in all of the cookies all of

the cookies were eaten in this case so

make sure your be verb a matches the

tense of your active voice sentence and

B matches the number of your subject is

it singular or is it plural finally then

the verb that’s used here take the verb

so again same verb here this verb needs

to be made into the past participle verb

form so in this case mailed in past

tense we have no change so the verb to

mail is both is mailed in both past

tense and in past participle form with H

however we change it to eaten so the

verb eat is eaten in past participle

form so please do this a three step

process to convert your active voice to

passive voice another note here that is

a little bit hard to see sorry it’s just

tiny writing this says also get get some

of you have asked me about this

using get in the position of B you may

sometimes see people use get or customs

got and we do this instead of B we

choose this instead of B for like

unexpected things for unexpected

situations like some kind of surprise

it’s often for negative things but not

always so I’ll talk about some examples

of this but yes this says get get here

also get so you may see get used in this

position so to read our our passive

voice sentences a letter was mailed a

letter was mailed or all of the cookies

were eaten so let’s try to convert these

sentences maybe you’ve already seen the

answers first one let’s try my dog is

chasing me around the park my dog is

chasing me around the park so how do we

change this sentence from active to

passive this is an active voice sentence

my dog is chasing me so first we have to

find subject verb and object here yeah

my subject is my dog in this case and

then my verb here I have is chasing so

we’re using progressive or continuous

form then me so this is the object so in

other words me this is the object of the

sentence this is important to keep in

mind then I have this extra information

around the park so let’s focus on this

part my dog is chasing me

this part matches this part here so to

convert I need to take my object of my

verb in this case me and put it in the

subject position so remember when you

are the subject of a sentence and you’re

talking about yourself you need to use I

you cannot use me here I I

then my verb in this case in my active

sentence is chasing right here this is

progressive so I need to keep

progressive and it’s in present

progressive is chasing so I

being so I’ve used am not is to match my

subject I am NOT I is I am and then

progressive verb I am being and then the

verb here is chase to chase

so chased is the past participle form of

the verb then I can keep this extra

information I am being chased around the

park so that sounds kind of scary but

you can use this if you want to make

like a funny sentence or if you want to

I don’t know maybe scare someone for

some reason so this is how we change an

active voice sentence to a passive voice

sentence all right let’s try one more

one more example we could hear our

neighbors terrible music all night so my

active voice sentence we could hear our

neighbors terrible music all night so

again same process where’s my subject

where’s my verb where’s my object here

so here my subject is we my verb I have

here as well and I also have this word

could so let’s keep good there as well

and then our word neighbors our

neighbors hmm so we have well our

neighbors terrible music actually sorry

our neighbors terrible music this is a

long object so this part is the object

of the sentence we move it to the

subject position so our neighbors

terrible music could be heard so again

I’m keeping that could and my B comes

before this the main verb here here so

think of could is kind of like helping

us it’s helping us in some way it’s like

a helping verb here so it could be heard

so here becomes heard in past participle

form could be heard all night my extra

information so this is how we identify

we find the different parts of the

sentence and we move them around in this

way to change from active to passive so

sometimes yeah sometimes I see your

example sentences

like there’s no object in your sentence

so make sure you have all of these parts

to make it easier to create your passive

sentence

some examples are coming in come while

Jeet hello says this software can be

updated by this setup so also make sure

like just another point you don’t have

to include that by someone like it’s

well I’ll talk about this in part 3 you

don’t have to include the person or the

thing doing the action like in some

cases you want to remove that or you

want to drop in okay on face book

everyone’s just saying hello

you have some examples Facebook please

feel free to send them I am watching I’m

looking for your example sentences oh

there’s one from Danny by the time my

mother arrived her cookies had been

eaten by my sister very nice it’s very

nice good example sentence thanks Danny

alright let’s go to a break and then

we’ll go to part 3 for today so I will

show you again the PDFs that I showed

you earlier but this time I will pick

them up so that they are not backwards

but you can see them off great so now if

you missed it

or if I did not show you there well

earlier these are the free some examples

of the free stuff that you can find from

the link below the video if you are

watching on YouTube or above the video

if you are watching on Facebook there

are many different topics so on these

you’ll find here I’ll show you I’ll show

you this one so on these PDFs

there’s yes some vocabulary words on the

front I know it’s a little bit bright

here but on the back there’s a list of

expression so it’s like questions

questions answers full phrases so not

just vocabulary words so pick up a

couple of these maybe to use for your

studies these are really good if you’re

a beginner as well so take a look and

find some topics that are interesting

for you

there are lots of different

here you can find these from the link

below the video on YouTube

above the video on Facebook on Instagram

sorry I can’t see you right now but

check YouTube or Facebook alright let’s

go to the last part for today’s lesson

then if you’re just joining today’s

topic is active voice versus passive

voice active voice versus passive voice

so let’s go to part 3 if you have not

already please do make sure to like and

share the video so others can find

today’s lesson alright let’s go to part

3 in part 3 I’m going to talk about when

you should use active and when you

should use passive so first let’s talk

about active voice so when should you

use active voice use active voice when

you want to focus on the person or the

thing doing the action so for example

you want the responsibility or you want

the credit for something you want to be

very clear who did this thing for

example I bought you a present I bought

you a present why do we want to use

active here like if I give you a present

I want you to know it’s from me so I use

active here I bought you a present this

is much more natural than passive voice

second our manager gave everyone over

time our manager gave everyone over time

so in this sentence the topic is over

time yes but like we want to use our

manager because it’s like who gave us

the overtime if you don’t know overtime

means extra work so you have more work

to do you’re working overtime over the

time that you are scheduled so in this

sentence who gave us overtime our

manager maybe I feel upset or

disappointed

I want my co-workers to know our manager

gave us overtime

so in this case we want to show the

responsibility for a situation another

example he forgot my car keys so in this

case I want to be clear who forgot them

he did so when you want to show focus

when you want the person or the thing

acting to be the focus of the sentence

use active voice in contrast then on the

other hand passive voice when should you

use passive voice this is a little bit

trickier some people say it sounds more

polite or it sounds more professional to

use passive voice in some cases yes

because passive voice is can be used to

be less direct but let’s talk generally

about a couple of different things this

if you want to focus on the person or

the thing receiving the action focus on

the person or the thing receiving the

action so let’s talk why why do you want

to focus on the person or the thing

receiving something a couple of reasons

first the actor is unknown so that means

the person doing the action is unknown

we don’t know the person who did the

action or we’re trying to hide something

we’re trying to hide something like we

don’t want someone to know something

there’s a secret or we want to focus on

a results we want to focus on the

outcome the end of something so let’s

look at a couple of examples of this

first the classic example of theft my

car was stolen my car was stolen so we

use passive voice in a sentence like

this because of this reason we don’t

know the actor we don’t know the person

who stole the car my car was stolen who

stole the car I don’t know so we use

passive here in another example the

research data was faked

the research data was faked so research

data was faked

faked means someone created it it’s not

real

so the research data was faked this is

something you might use to try to hide

something so if like you discover your

team mates created fake data but you

don’t want them to get in trouble you

might try to avoid trouble with a

sentence like this the research data was

faked or maybe you don’t know who faked

it another example we are being watched

we are being watched so this may be

you’ve heard this in like action movies

or suspense movies like I am being

watched actually I’m being watched right

now by all of you

but in that case it’s like this is the

focus situation or the person being

watched is the focus we are being

watched by who we don’t know so we can

use passive voice to describe them

another one our team was helped a lot

our team was helped a lot so you might

use this if you want to focus on the

result so the result in this situation

is the help the speaker’s team received

so if you want to focus on something

like this it’s can be better to use

passive voice to do that so regarding

the issue of passive voice sounding more

professional the reason people say that

is because it can be less direct

so for example you don’t have to say

like you do this or for like what’s a

good example I got recently about an

interview so if you don’t know the

person who’s going to do the interview

you might ask a question like will the

interview be held next week instead of

are you going to hold the interview next

week so if you use passive voice you

don’t have to include the person acting

this can be really helpful if you don’t

know the person who’s going to do the

action so for that reason it can sound

more professional and more polite but

passive voice just because it’s passive

is not more polite or less polite than

active

positive voice and active voice are

tools that you can use to make your

writing more like have more depth to

make your meaning have a little more

depth to it so that is it for today

I’m looking for your examples some

active examples are coming in and gird

says my boss gave me overtime yes that

is an active voice sentence

Mahmood says this painting was drawn by

Leonardo da Vinci yes so if you want to

focus on the painting as opposed to da

Vinci yes great

nice passive one some other examples on

Facebook hello everybody on Facebook I

our teacher is being followed okay so

one point be careful about the verb

follow so in that case your grammar

great our teacher is being followed to

follow someone online and to follow

someone in person can sometimes like the

meaning can be a little bit ambiguous

meaning like it can sound like there are

two different two different meanings

we’re not sure which one so maybe our

teacher is being watched or this lesson

is being watched is good maybe a little

clearer

alright uhm I don’t see any other

examples yet so I actually I’m on time

today oh my gosh that never happens

amazing so I’ll end there for today’s

lesson Wow there are so many people

watching again amazing I’ll end there

for today I hope that this was helpful

for you oh I’ll step off screen so you

can take a screenshot oh sorry my hand

isn’t you can take a screenshot for your

notes if you like but as always I’ll be

back next week next week

how to express amounts will be the topic

I always forget what I plan next week

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join us I’m going to talk about amounts

so if you want to review for next week’s

lesson please review countable and

uncountable nouns everyone’s well end

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things for you to look at many I did not

show so take a look and download

something there it is all for free so I

hope this lesson was helpful for you I

hope that you got a good tool to help

you convert from active to passive so

I’ll stop there for today thanks very

much for liking and sharing the video as

always we really appreciate it

enjoy the rest of your week enjoy your

weekend and I’ll see you again next time

you