Active and Passive Verb Forms Basic English Grammar
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everybody welcome back to our weekly
live stream my name is Alisha and today
we’re going to talk about the active
voice and the passive voice in English
this is a very common question I get
from you so we’re going to discuss what
these two things are and how to choose
when to use them so please as you join
send us a message in the chat and make
sure to like and share the video so
other learners can find today’s lesson
we’ll begin in about two minutes scraped
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alright that’s good um so I’m going to
share the video and get started with
today’s lesson for today’s lesson I’ve
prepared it as like a grammar lesson a
little bit to introduce these two voices
and I hope that you in the chat can send
lots of examples of active and passive
voice so we can check out your sentences
and we can help each other and make
fixes and so on too so please send lots
of your examples in the chat today and
we can practice together alright I will
share and we will begin today’s lesson
with the active voice the active voice
so first I want to explain what active
voice is used to do why do we need the
active voice we’ll begin here with this
explanation a long explanation I’m
afraid but in active voice when we use
the active voice what’s called active
voice the focus of your sentence the
focus of your statement is the person or
the thing doing the action so the person
in this case like me for example or the
thing like a marker or a whiteboard or a
camera that’s the focus of the sentence
so the focus is the person or the thing
doing the action so we can understand
that person or that thing as the actor
the actor so yes the word actor in
English means like movie star someone
who is really
in the movies but actor here actor in
this case for today’s lesson means the
person or the thing that is doing
something that is the actor so the actor
the actor is the subject of our sentence
so that’s the person or the thing that
is doing something they’re doing
something this is a key difference a key
point for today’s lesson so we use
active voice a lot in English I know in
some languages they prefer to speak with
passive voice which we’ll talk about in
a moment but in English we like to use
the active voice a lot in English using
the active sounds confident it sounds
like we know all the information it
sounds like we are prepared to share
everything we are not hiding anything so
active voice is preferred in a lot of
different cases in English I’ll talk
about some other situations later let’s
look at some examples and for you who
are watching I’ll write this down here
in the chat in the chat whether you’re
watching live or not live send oops
sorry send and active sorry active voice
send an active voice sentence so
practice writing these two
and if you can think about how you might
change it to passive later so in the
chat send an active voice sentence I’ll
share a few examples to get you started
so first I finished my report
I finished my report so in this sentence
this isn’t these are all active voice
sentences in this sentence who is the
actor I in this case my subject I so the
person doing something is me I the
action is finished so this is a past
tense sentence I finished what did I
finish my report
I finished my report so we know the
person who did the action me we know the
action and we know like the thing that
received the action so my report is the
thing that was finished that was passive
we’ll get to that in a moment so I
finished my report very basic sentence
some examples are coming in good someone
sent the passive version of this let’s
use active voice for an hour active
voice for now okay good
another one I joined a party yesterday
great nice example of an active sentence
I’ve watched your videos a lot very nice
okay I study on YouTube great nice
examples in the YouTube chat okay on
Facebook let’s see I’m watching Alicia
perfect nice active sentence I am
watching your lectures as Indian very
nice someone says I don’t know if that’s
an example or just a comment okay good I
did my laundry on YouTube perfect I
finished my training good I run in the
street good okay good
nice examples so this is an active
sentence some of you are sending passive
voice sentences yes they are correct but
they are passive will practice passive
more later so let’s try another one
let’s change the actor so here my
subject was me so I finished my
now let’s change it I erased this sorry
then that okay the next example that man
stole my bag that man stole my bag so
here my actor is that man over there
I don’t know him so I say that man that
guy maybe to that dude hey that guy
stole my bag or that man stole my bag so
my actor is that man specifically
somewhere over there there’s nobody
there okay so the action stole stole
stole is the past tense of steal steal
so to steal is to take something that is
not yours so don’t do this so that man
stole what did he steal my bag so my bag
is receiving this action stealing my bag
what’s the thing that was stolen we’ll
talk about passive in a moment
someone says very bad man he is indeed
okay so this is another active voice
sentence we know the person doing the
action
we know the actor that man we know the
action here and we know what received
the action my bag here okay
other examples are coming in I’m
programming a web app maybe Dave hi uh
Alicia is still okay there’s some very
interesting examples you guys are
sending um that girl stole my heart oh
no a great example Daniel very nice lots
of people are saying that woman stole my
heart why are there so many of those
examples that’s kind of funny they’re
like really I see like seven on screen
right now the same example sentence
that’s pretty funny okay someone says
that person bothers me good good good
okay that woman stole my heart what with
all these examples the same example
that’s funny I hope that not true for
everybody but that’s funny that many of
you had the same example okay the dog is
biting me oh no is that true from Kay on
Facebook great great okay let’s go to
the last example of n all right my
coworker let’s change the actor again my
coworker is eating my lunch
sadface my coworker is eating my lunch
sad face this is my nice sad drawing hmm
my coworker is eating my lunch
so here the actor is my coworker
what’s a co-worker a co-worker is your
colleague the person you work with the
person you share an office with so my
coworker
it’s my subject my coworker what’s the
action is eating my coworker is eating
so this is happening now my coworker is
eating I’m using the progressive form
what is my co-worker eating my lunch
oh no so sad face my coworker is eating
my lunch so I know the actor I know the
action happening now and I know the
thing that received the action so again
co-worker is the person you work with
the person you share in office with your
team member 13 member so these are
active voice sentences so when we want
the actor to be the focus we know the
actor we can share that information we
use active voice in English we like to
use the active voice a lot because it
sounds very clear in English we like to
say everything clearly we usually don’t
try to hide anything unless there’s
something strange in the situation we’ll
talk about that in a moment
great some more examples are coming in
my coworker is punching my teeth
what’s grammatically correct but a very
interesting situation I cannot imagine
on Facebook a person stole everything
from the store whoa okay math Matea says
my co-worker is copying my project whoa
my coworker is doing my work yeah when
YouTube says you have very bad coworkers
you guys are funny examples today that’s
nice
someone else said my dog is eating my
cat you guys have very very interesting
examples very interesting okay this is
very interesting
great you guys have nice examples
everybody has nice examples active voice
sounds good so we’re going to go to
passive voice in part two of today’s
lesson and then we will talk about how
to choose so when to use these for now
let’s take a short break for today’s
lesson I thought it would be good I want
to introduce these two PDFs these are
both I talked about the business one
from time to time this one is a school
one ooh thanks for the zoom this one is
a school PDF
this has phrases for class phrases for
class here on the back the business one
has phrases for a business meeting I
thought these two would be very nice to
pair with this lesson today because
these are both situations in which
choosing between active and passive can
help you sound like making the correct
choice between active and passive can
help you to sound more confident or more
sure about what you want to say so if
you would like to download these they
are free you can find them from the link
below the video on youtube or above the
video on Facebook so these are the
business and school PDFs but there are
lots of others I’ll show you maybe a
couple more
leader all right great with that let’s
continue then to passive voice now we
talked about active voice if you missed
it don’t worry this lesson is being
recorded let’s talk about passive now
what is passive if you’re just joining
to you don’t forget to like and share
the video so others can find today’s
lesson okay so passive now let’s discuss
passive I will go over here so passive
voice in passive voice then different
from active voice the person or thing
receiving the action is the focus so in
active voice the person doing the action
the actor was the focus of our sentence
in this case with passive however the
thing or the person receiving some
action is our focus so this is long
there’s a lot of information here but
this is a key to understanding passive
voice when we should use it passive
voice is used when we do not know the
person or thing doing the action so I
don’t know who did something I see the
result or I know the result so I can
describe that with passive voice I don’t
know who did it but I know something
happened I use passive voice to express
that
so that’s one that’s one situation when
we don’t know the person or the thing
doing the action second when the person
or the thing doing the action is not
important not important so maybe I know
the person or the thing who did
something but it’s not important to my
conversation now what’s important is the
result I want to focus on the results
this is the second case where we use
passive voice a lot finally or a third
reason when we want to emphasize the
thing receiving the action so emphasized
means to make something stronger like we
want the thing receiving the action to
have like stronger meaning in our
sentence there are a lot of reasons we
might want to do this I will talk about
this point more in part three of today’s
lesson so these are the three cases or
three kind of general guides for when to
use the passive okay so to make the
passive form to make a passive statement
we use the verb to be to be and we
change the verb to be to match the tenth
of our sentence so we don’t change our
verb to past tense we change to be so we
use was for example and then we use the
past participle form of the verb with
was with was in cases like these so I’ll
show you a few different examples of how
we can make the passive with a couple of
like kind of changed sentences from the
first part of our lesson so first one in
the beginning of today’s lesson we
talked about this one I finished sorry
sorry thank you we’ve talked about this
sentence I finished my report I finished
my report
to make this sentence passive then we
use my report was finished my report was
finished hmm so here there’s no
information about the actor so who
finished my report we don’t know it’s
not important for some reason my
emphasis in this sentence is just my
report was finished so here my subject
is my report so this is the thing
receiving the action so to express that
I use my report was Mike to beaver and
then past participle finished my report
was finished my report was finished a
slightly more advanced point some of you
have asked about this we sometimes use
get instead of B in sentences like these
so for example my report got finished
when you use the verb get here it
communicates something unexpected so
like a surprise and so we can use get in
these passive sentences for example my
report got finished it sounds like I’m
surprised I’m not I don’t expect my
report was finished like that’s a
surprise to me to communicate that I say
my report got finished so what happened
my report got finished what so that
sounds like something kind of surprising
ok let’s continue to the next one so
let’s change our first one to passive us
lots of you in the chat already sent
this answer but that man stole my bag
was our active voice sentence but to
make this passive my bag was stolen my
bag was stolen so again who is the actor
here we don’t know in this case or it’s
not important I use to be
in the past was was this is something
that is finished it’s done stolen is the
past participle form of steel steel so
an active voice we used simple past
tense that man stole my bag that man
stole my bag to make it a passive
sentence we use was stolen
past participle form of the verb steal
my bag was stolen so in this case I
don’t know who stole my bag or maybe for
some reason it’s not important who stole
my bag so you might use this sentence if
you’re at a coffee shop and maybe you
realize your bag is gone you could say
well my bag was stolen this is another
case this is a great example of a case
where you can use got my bag got stolen
very unexpected so my bag got stolen we
can use it here okay
sorry I haven’t checked the chat in a
while someone says is it correct if I
say my report was done I guess you could
but it sounds a little not quite so
clear this is getting into a little bit
of the differences between like a status
word done and an action word done so I
would say my report was finished just to
be a little more clear okay my little
dog was stolen oh dear oh dear okay uh
other examples why not my bag was stolen
by that man says Humvee air you can use
that yeah my bag was stolen by that man
that’s fine it’s grammatically correct
so I think I saw a couple of you sending
sentences that use by someone someone
someone so my report was finished by me
yeah sure you can use that if if you
want to include the actor that’s fine
you can if you don’t know the actor this
is how you might say it so yes it’s
correct it’s fine to do that if you want
but there are some situations where you
just don’t know the actor or you
to hide the actor or something so yes it
is fine to do that my house was built in
one year very very nice very nice my
wallet was stolen good good
is it okay to use to past tense in one
sentence yes that’s fine my phone was
stolen good good good
uh my car okay okay lots of people
having things stolen okay let’s move on
to the last example though my lunch is
being eaten my lunch is being eaten so
here we have the passive form of this my
coworker is eating my lunch
sentence my coworker is eating my lunch
sentence here my lunch is being eaten so
yes we can say my lunch is being eaten
by my coworker you can say that but in
some cases we don’t want to maybe our
coworker can hear us like if like Eric
is eating my lunch
I just sorry Eric we don’t want to say
like my lunch is being eaten by Eric
because Eric might hear me and realize I
can see him sorry arctas so we might not
choose we might choose not to use by
someone here but let’s break this down
my lunch my lunch is our focus here so
this is our subject yeah my lunch is
being is being so I have to use the be
verb here in this case we’re using the
progressive form just as we did over
here we’re using the progressive eating
here when we make it passive though we
need to change our beaver my lunch is
being this means happening now is being
and eaten is my past participle verb the
past participle of the verb eat my lunch
is being eaten
sadly so my lunch is being eaten by my
coworker my lunch is being eaten by Eric
whatever lots of people are having
things stolen into chat okay so stolen
is good and I think so again if you want
to hide the actor or you do not know the
actor you can use passive to do that
some other examples that are not about
having things stolen my console is being
fixed
nice one Fernando okay
[Music]
some trees are being planted says C
Homme very nice my chicken was stolen
but what’s interesting lots of things
being stolen my homework is being
dropped oh no like physically dropped
your homework okay other examples other
examples what means focus focus focus
means the thing we want to put our
attention on so we need to that’s like
the most important thing in the sentence
so is the person or thing receiving the
action that’s the focus of our sentence
my book was torn my lunch was stolen
okay lots of things being stolen let’s
take one more short break and then we’ll
talk about how to choose how do you
choose active voice or passive voice
I’ve given you many hints but we’ll talk
more about this so I want to share a
couple more of these PDFs that I think
could match with today’s lesson this is
the travel this is travel to the USA one
yes but mm-hmm
on the back again there is hard to see
there’s this question part should I
would run around there but I I’ll knock
something over
oh yes this question part asking
questions so these are like answers a
lot of answers to common travel
questions yes but you might use or you
might hear rather passive and active
sentences to respond to so if you’re
traveling maybe this is another good one
to pick up this is the travel PDF and
then I showed you the business and the
school ones earlier there are a couple
more just some things to think about
shopping as well there are lots of verb
on the back of this shopping one too but
um so you can practice your active and
passive sentences with those all right
let’s go on to the last part of today’s
lesson then how to choose how to choose
so how do we choose how do we decide
should I use active voice should I use
passive voice I don’t know
so first what is your focus
think about your sentence what is your
focus do you want it so again focus the
most important part of your sentence
what’s the most important thing in your
sentence is it the person or the thing
acting is it the person doing some
action is that your focus is that the
most important thing probably you should
choose the active voice probably active
voice or is your focus is the most
important thing the person or the thing
receiving the action so something
happened to something else in that case
maybe you should use the passive voice
or maybe do do you know the actor so if
you if you don’t know the actor or if
you want to hide the actor you can use
passive so hide hide again means like to
make something secret like you don’t
want to share something to hide the
actor so why would you want to hide the
actor this is something I haven’t talked
about today can we move down just a
little bit so I’ll show you a couple
examples of situations where you may
want to hide the person acting this is
usually because you did something bad or
someone is in trouble
for example
your computer was broken your computer
was broken so you leave your house and
you come back and you leave your office
and you come back and someone says your
computer was broken so here this is
passive voice your computer is our focus
yeah was broken so broken is the past
participle form of the verb break your
computer was broken you might think what
why who broke my computer what happened
this is a situation where there’s some
trouble
so you want to hide the actor maybe the
speaker broke the computer and doesn’t
want to explain you use passive voice
but please keep in mind like in this
case you’re going to get lots of
questions like who broke the computer
what happened so expect follow-up
passive voice is not like a way to keep
you safe
if you get in trouble it’s a way to try
to hide sometimes if you get in trouble
but it will not keep you safe okay
hey Monday blue thanks for joining okay
second example the customer was taken
care of the customer was taken care of
so what’s this this is not a situation
where there’s trouble necessarily maybe
there’s not trouble this is an example
of like a company situation so in many
organizations companies whatever big
groups of people working together in
these cases sometimes it’s not important
to say which employee did something we
don’t need to say specifically Alicia
did this Eric did that Devin did that we
don’t say specifically who but we need
to know that something happened this is
another case where we might use passive
so the customer was taken care of so to
take care of something means like to do
what is necessary or to help someone
this case so here who took care of the
customer it’s not important
maybe Alicia did it maybe Devon did it
maybe Eric did it but we don’t need to
know that the most important thing in
this message is the customer was helped
the customer was taken care of so our
focus is the customer so this is an
example where it’s not so important
maybe to say who did it but we want to
focus on the action being completed so
this is a simple guide to how to choose
between active and passive generally if
you in English if you know the actor
it’s better to say it in many cases
there are also times when passive will
sound a little bit more polite like in a
job interview setting for example what
time will the interview be held it’s
like hmm I don’t know who’s going to
hold the interview so I use passive
voice to ask my question so there are a
couple of situations like that where you
don’t know the person or you’re not sure
about the actor so you can use passive
voice to get around that so we have to
someone shouted in all caps can I say my
computer is broken instead of was broken
yes you can but the nuance of your
sentence changes my computer is broken
is a status as a condition my computer
is broken if you want to say my computer
was broken
sounds like someone did it someone did
that so is broken we don’t have that
feeling okay I have to finish because
I’m late as usual
let’s end there so thank you very much
to everyone who joined us next week we
are going to be back yeah we’re gonna
talk about this how to give your opinion
and connect your ideas so lots of you
well some of you have asked recently
about how to make like longer sentences
and like putting your ideas together so
I’m gonna talk about and then and so on
and after that like how to connect your
ideas and show
your ideas share your opinions a bit
more smoothly so please join us next
week July 25th Wednesday 10:00 p.m.
Eastern Standard Time that is New York
City time please google it to find your
local time if you don’t know what time
that is if you missed this lesson yes it
will be recorded it will be available on
YouTube and Facebook very soon if you’re
watching on Instagram please check the
full video on YouTube or Facebook so
we’ll finish there thank you very much
to everybody who joined and thank you
for your very funny example sentences
don’t forget to grab download your free
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there’s lots of new things actually that
maybe I haven’t printed out I should
print out some new ones so check out all
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join us next week thanks for liking and
sharing the video enjoy the rest of your
week enjoy your weekend and I will see
you again soon bye bye