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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lesson I’m going to share the video and
then I am going to begin so as we go
through today’s lesson please feel free
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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
I showed you this a little bit earlier I
showed you at the beginning of today’s
lesson the three things that you can
find from the link below the video if
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video if you’re watching on Facebook
these are free PDFs
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find these from the link below the video
if you’re watching on youtube or above
the video if you are watching on
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cooking in English is another topic you
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part two of today’s lesson someone says
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thanks for sharing yeah if you haven’t
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share this video so that other people
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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
wow it is February already it’s going to
be February already so please join us
next week February 5th is that the
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that’s the Wednesday okay so February
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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
there for today don’t forget to check
out you are free stuff from the link
below or above the video if you have not
already there are lots and lots of
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