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The Passive Voice: When, why, and how to use it – Part 1 – English Grammar


00:00:01hi guys

00:00:03today we look at the passive form and

00:00:05why we use it your lesson starts now

00:00:43Oh

00:00:49hey there dude what you doing me

00:00:54I’m just enjoying the water in the Sun

00:00:57oh that’s nice the relaxing swim and Sun

00:01:01you see oh my god what is happening what

00:01:05what oh man

00:01:09something bit me oh sauce will fit you

00:01:15I don’t know ah

00:01:18is it bleeding bad oh that’s pretty bad

00:01:22huh oh I don’t I don’t feel good

00:01:27mm yeah well well let me take your mind

00:01:31off that first thing then how do we make

00:01:33a sentence in English what do I need

00:01:35what uh I really don’t want to talk

00:01:40about grammar I come on it’s good fear

00:01:43what we need

00:01:45I don’t know subject Oh faked go on a

00:01:51very good and an object an object please

00:02:00get an ambulance or something well done

00:02:03you helicopters on its way I promise

00:02:05first look at your sentence oh you said

00:02:09something bit me

00:02:11what yeah I think a shark bit me

00:02:16you sure it’s a sharp dude it’s the

00:02:19ocean sharks buying it could have been a

00:02:23shark it could have been a fish from

00:02:25Nemo it could have been me so if you

00:02:28don’t know the subject and the action is

00:02:30more important why don’t you use the

00:02:32passive form why haven’t you call an

00:02:35ambulance

00:02:36yep soon is it necessary to say buy

00:02:40something why are you asking me about

00:02:42grammar right now oh no it’s not

00:02:47necessary see by in a passive form hold

00:02:50on you you’re a good student now let me

00:02:53go get that help I promised yeah

00:03:06so from that cartoon we learn the form

00:03:09of passive which is the verb knee or a

00:03:12version of B depending on the time and

00:03:15ferb 3 also known as past participle so

00:03:20something bit me which is active became

00:03:23I was bitten by something passive now

00:03:28this happened in the past so II takes

00:03:31the past tense the verb 3 the past by

00:03:34disable and that never changes now the

00:03:39most important thing to know about

00:03:41pattern this is a very common mistake it

00:03:44completely changes the direction of the

00:03:47verb for example if I say this I hit Tom

00:03:51this is an active form and it means this

00:03:54I did the action however if I say this

00:04:01in the passive form I was hit by Tom now

00:04:05I received the action

00:04:07ah

00:04:11so why do we use the passive what common

00:04:15mistake is some people think we use it

00:04:17just to sell we can’t use it to sell

00:04:22normal but it’s wrong to think that’s

00:04:25the only reason now in the cartoon you

00:04:27learn one reason why we use it it’s when

00:04:31we don’t know the subject but that’s not

00:04:35the only reason

00:04:36look at this conversation where we award

00:04:42goodbye my mom course the subject it’s

00:04:49his mom we don’t say I was born by my

00:04:51mother that’s stupid but we do say I was

00:04:54born and that’s a passive form so there

00:04:58you have your second reason the subject

00:05:01is really obvious so we don’t need to

00:05:03say it

00:05:07in both cases however the action is the

00:05:10focus in the sentence

00:05:13like in this example have you lost your

00:05:18wallet

00:05:19no it’s been stolen another reason yeah

00:05:27you guessed it is the sound more formal

00:05:30but also we use it for things which are

00:05:33generally true for example look at this

00:05:36same conversation in two different

00:05:39settings this first conversation it’s

00:05:43casual between two friends probably

00:05:45he’ll say inactive you know they say

00:05:50this is the most romantic city and this

00:05:54second one you’re saying exactly the

00:05:56same thing it’s a general truth and he

00:06:00wants to be awful

00:06:01so you’ll say this you know it is say

00:06:06this is the most romantic city so the

00:06:10general trends and passive is a good

00:06:12option to use

00:06:16one last reason we use patty this one it

00:06:19can be more socially useful or

00:06:21politically useful

00:06:24let’s compare these two videos the first

00:06:27one he says it in Hassan no he’s right

00:06:30mistakes were made and I’m frankly not

00:06:35happy about it now in the second video

00:06:38he says the same thing but in an active

00:06:41way I think I made a mistake can you

00:06:46tell the difference between the two why

00:06:48do you think we use the passive for this

00:06:50and the active for this I’ll give you a

00:06:55mug

00:07:09okay I’m bored playing a clip yeah I

00:07:12take responsibility for it and there it

00:07:15is the active shows the subject taking

00:07:18responsibility whereas the passive the

00:07:22subject avoids responsibility so there

00:07:25you have the last reason to use the

00:07:26passive to avoid responsibility you’re

00:07:33confident with the passive now time for

00:07:35a test out the way out the way quick

00:08:44you