PASSIVE VOICE - English Grammar step-by-step

Summary

In this informative video, Arnel from Arnel's Everyday English explains the concept of passive voice, contrasting it with active voice through examples. He details the grammatical structure involving 'BE' and past participles, and outlines scenarios to use passive voice: emphasizing actions over actors, unknown or unimportant actors, obvious actors, and inanimate subjects. Arnel also offers a study tip for recognizing passive voice in media and provides a method to transform active sentences into passive. He clarifies that intransitive verbs cannot be passive and encourages viewers to visit his website for more resources.

Takeaways

• 📚 The passive voice is the opposite of the active voice, where the focus is on the action rather than the doer of the action.
• 🔍 To form the passive voice, you need 'BE' plus a past participle, which varies depending on the tense of the sentence.
• 🤔 The passive voice is used when the action is more important than the person who performs it, the doer is unknown or unimportant, or the doer is obvious.
• 🏛 Examples given include sentences where the passive voice emphasizes the action, such as '1 million pounds were donated to the children's hospital'.
• 👀 The passive voice can also be used when the object of the action cannot perform the action itself, like '100 chocolate cakes were sold on Sunday'.
• 👮‍♂️ An agent (the doer of the action) can be added in the passive voice using 'by' plus the person, but this information is optional.
• 📰 A study tip is to highlight passive forms in newspapers and consider why the passive voice is used, aligning with the reasons mentioned.
• 🛠️ Transforming an active sentence to passive involves changing the structure to 'BE' plus past participle, and optionally adding the agent.
• 🚫 Some tenses, like present perfect continuous and past perfect continuous, do not have a natural passive form and should not be forced.
• 🚷 Intransitive verbs, which do not take an object, cannot be made into the passive voice.
• 🔗 For a comprehensive list of passive formations and examples, viewers are directed to the instructor's website for more resources.

Q & A

What is the passive voice?

The passive voice is a grammatical structure where the subject of the sentence is the receiver of the action rather than the doer. For example, in 'Chocolate is loved by everybody,' 'Chocolate' is the receiver of the action 'love,' making it passive voice.

How is the passive voice formed grammatically?

The passive voice is formed using a form of the verb 'to be' (BE) plus the past participle of the main verb. For instance, 'My house is being painted' uses 'is' (a form of BE) and 'painted' (past participle of 'paint').

Why might we choose to use the passive voice instead of the active voice?

We use the passive voice when the action is more important than the person who performs it, when the doer is unknown or unimportant, when the doer is obvious, or when the object of the sentence cannot perform the action itself.

Can you provide an example of when the passive voice emphasizes the action over the doer?

Yes, '1 million pounds were donated to the children's hospital' emphasizes the action of donating a large sum of money rather than who did the donating.

What is an example of using the passive voice when the doer is not known or not important?

The sentence 'This beautiful bridge was built in 1732' uses the passive voice because the identity of the person who built the bridge is either unknown or not significant in the context of the sentence.

How can the passive voice be used when the doer is obvious?

In the sentence 'Bill was arrested last night,' the passive voice is used because it's obvious that only the police have the authority to arrest someone, making the doer of the action clear.

Can you explain how to transform an active sentence into a passive one?

To transform an active sentence into passive, you change the object of the active sentence into the subject of the passive sentence and use the appropriate form of BE plus the past participle of the verb. For example, 'Apple sells thousands of iPhones every day' becomes 'Thousands of iPhones are sold every day by Apple.'

Is it possible to use a passive voice construction with every verb?

No, intransitive verbs, which do not take an object, cannot be used in the passive voice. For example, you cannot say '*A late was arrived by me' because 'arrived' is intransitive and does not require an object.

What is the role of the agent in a passive sentence?

The agent in a passive sentence is the doer of the action and is optional. It is introduced by the preposition 'by'. For example, in 'A man was saved by the lifeguard,' 'the lifeguard' is the agent.

Why might some tenses not have a natural passive form?

Some tenses, such as the present perfect continuous and past perfect continuous, do not have a natural passive form because they describe ongoing actions that are not typically focused on the receiver of the action.

How can one practice recognizing and using the passive voice?

One can practice by highlighting passive voice constructions in newspapers or using subtitles in films to identify passive sentences and understand why they are used. This helps in becoming more confident in recognizing and using the passive voice.