Today I want to talk to you about using active and passive voice that's coming up Hey everyone, my name is Wes. This is interactive English which is all about helping you practice and improve your English skills today I have a grammar lesson for you. It's all about active and passive voice.
I want to tell you Well, what is the difference between active and passive how do you change sentences from active voice to passive voice? And when should you use the passive voice because I think that can confuse learners from time to time the reason why I'm doing this is because Often in the comments I get questions and people like well, hey, how do you change this sentence to the passive voice? It made me realize that okay This is valuable information for you to know about when and how to use active and passive voice So when you're thinking about okay?
Like let's start with the sentences that we can change from active to passive so the first thing that I want to do is focus on the verb and The verb tense does not matter what really matters is what? Follows the verb does an object follow the verb Because if it does then we can change it to the passive voice. Let me give you some more information about that So verbs can either be transitive or intransitive if a verb is transitive It means that it has an object in order to help complete the meaning of the sentence For example the verb by we we will follow that with an object because it tells us what the person is buying I buy some food subject verb object so if a verb has an object than it is a transitive verb if A verb is intransitive then well that just means that there is no object the verb will likely be followed by a Prepositional phrase or maybe even an adverb think about the verb laugh All right, you know what, the meaning of that is and I could say the sentence She laughs at the joke subject verb prepositional phrase or I could say they laughed immediately Subject verb adverb now there are some verbs that can be either transitive or intransitive Let's look at the verb eat I could say we will eat the sandwiches talking about the future I have my subject verb and the sandwiches.
That is my object now I can use that same verb and follow it with a prepositional phrase and say well we will eat in the park in That case I have subject verb Prepositional phrase it is intransitive now The reason why I'm telling you all this because you may be thinking what the heck does this have to do with? Active and passive voice if a verb is intransitive You cannot change it to the passive voice So all of those sentences that I just talked about that were intransitive she laughs at the joke they laughed Immediately we will eat in the park Those sentences cannot be changed to the passive voice in Order to change a sentence from active to passive or even just to use the passive. You need to have an object So now, you know the types of sentences that you can change to the passive voice.
They must be transitive verbs let's look at the difference between active passive how to change it and when to use that passive voice so that I think just in general the main difference between Active voice and passive voice is that with active voice? The subject is performing the action when you're using the passive voice the subject is Receiving the action keep in mind that the vast majority of the time you're going to use the active voice when you're speaking you're gonna use active voice and when you're writing You're gonna be writing those active sentences. The reason for this is because Active voice.
It's it's more direct and the focus is on the actor. It is on the subject That is performing the action. For example, I could say Well Wes teaches English it's direct It's easy to understand and the focus is on.
Well Wes who is doing the action? The subject is doing the action. So the vast majority of the time just no all right, you are going to use the active voice there are certain instances in which it's common to use the passive voice and I want to talk to you about four different times in which you you may want to use the passive voice and why and as we go through this I'm going to give you some examples and We're going to change the sentences from active to passive So let's begin with the first one which is when you want to emphasize the action over the actor This is a great example of when you would want to use the passive voice.
So let's take the sentence. I Wrote that email. This is an active sentence subject-verb-object now if we want to change this to the passive voice we are going to take the object and Move it to the front of the sentence.
Then you are going to add the verb to be plus the past participle Plus the phrase by and the subject. So let's look at this change a bit closer We have our our active sentence. I wrote that email that email.
That's the object I'm going to move it to the front of the sentence Then I'm going to follow it with the verb to be now One thing you need to keep in mind is the verb tense because in the active sentence wrote is in the simple past So that means I need to use the verb to be in the simple past that email was Then the past participle the main verb in the active sentence is right The past participle is written right wrote written that email was written by Me. Hey, that is the subject The subject gets moved to the end notice the subject changes from a subject pronoun to an object pronoun So in our active sentence, we're going to use the subject pronoun I I you he she it we they if we're changing it to the passive then it's going to become an object pronoun Me me you him her? Us them those are object pronouns one other thing that I think is important It is subject verb agreement because in this case I'm saying that email was written if in my active sentence I were to say well I wrote those emails and the object is plural That's going to change the subject verb agreement Then I would say those emails were Written so that that's something you need to pay close attention to when changing from active to passive is the object Singular or is the object plural?
So this this is kind of a difficult example to start out with because there are many changes that are occurring You have a simple sentence like I wrote that email and you're going to change it to the passive that email was written by me and Again, I told you in this sense You might use the passive if you want to Emphasize the action over the actor another time that you may want to use the passive voice is when you want to avoid Identifying the actor you want to avoid identifying that subject So let's take let's take an active sentence. We made mistakes We have our subject verb and our object. Our object is mistakes Let's now change it to the passive and this time we're going to avoid we're going to avoid Identifying the actor so I would take mistakes I'm gonna move it to the front of the sentence mistakes were because again, We're talking about the past tense and then the past participle made mistakes were made Finished.
I don't want to identify Who made the mistakes and the reason why is because well we made the mistakes so this in this example, I I think of Government and politicians because they don't want to admit when they made a mistake So instead of going up there and saying well look, sorry everyone We made mistakes they would get up there and they would use the passive voice and say well Mistakes were made. And in that case they are not Identifying themselves because people would would would hate them for it and this is a way for them to avoid responsibility So in this example, I I tend to think of politicians I know I'm rather cynical instead of saying you know, oh we made mistakes They might say mistakes were made and they avoid Identifying the actor another time in which you may want to use the passive voice is when the actor is unknown We don't know who the subject is. That is performing that action for example Let's take the sentence Someone stole my bike Subject-verb-object.
Now, let's change it to the passive. We're gonna take the object move it to the front my bike Follow it with the verb to be was because it was the past tense. My bike was plus the past participle Stolen so we have my bike was stolen by well, we don't know who the person is in the active voice I just said someone I use the indefinite pronoun But if we're changing this to the passive, you don't need to say by someone.
It's not necessary We don't know who it is. You just say, oh my bike was stolen So this is a great example as to when you would use the passive When you you don't know who the actor is, my bike was stolen my wallet was stolen those are examples of When I think it's pretty common that you may hear someone use the passive or maybe you want to use the passive voice as well another time in which you may want to use the passive is when you want to you want to have a firm tone you're giving A command you want to be firm, but you also want to be polite as well So this is a great example of when you may hear someone using the passive or you can use it, too So let's start with just a general command, which is no talking So if we want to change this to the passive, it can be a little tricky. So let's expand that sentence out too We do not allow talking now.
We have something to work with and can change it to the passive voice So we're going to take talking. We're gonna move it to the front We're gonna follow it with the verb to be in the present tense talking is not Because we're talking about something in the negative talking is not Allowed that is the past participle and and that's basically how you would say it You don't need to identify the actor you're giving a command. It's understood so you would just say Talking is not allowed and I said it's a little more polite because if if somebody's going to tell you hey No talking.
I think that can be come off as a little rude instead I think it's a little more polite to just say hey, you know talking is not allowed so these are four great examples as to when you may want to try and use the passive voice or You may likely hear somebody else using the passive voice. So let's practice a little bit I want to go back through each and every one of these instances I'm gonna give you a sentence in the active voice and I want you to change it to the passive and I want you to Say the passive sentence out loud I'll give you a moment to think about it and then I will tell you the answer and I'm gonna try and give you sentences that I think are relevant That I think people would actually say in the passive voice So let's begin with that first instance in which you may want to Emphasize the action over the actor and the sentence that I'm going to give you is this one right here my ancestors Farm this land Change it to the passive voice. I'll make it a little easier for you.
Alright, I'm giving you part of the answer right here What would you say? How would you change this to the passive? I?
Hope that you said in the passive voice This land was farmed by my ancestors. And this is something yeah, you may want to emphasize that Especially if maybe something is going to happen to the land. We can't we can't destroy this land This land was farmed by my ancestors It's very important to me the next sentence that I want you to change and I want you to avoid Identifying the actor is this one they will put their dog to sleep.
It is it's it's a sad sentence It's a fact of life if you don't know what it means to put an animal to sleep is basically to The animal mostly because of old age or they're sick and they have a poor quality of life So you could say in the active voice they will put their dog to sleep How would you change it to the passive? Here is part of it. How would you complete that sentence?
I? Hope that all of you said their dog will be put to sleep We're talking about something that will happen in the future will be put in this case You're not identifying the actor you're not saying by them if you're talking to somebody else about this Family situation and you know, it's difficult for them You're just going to tell somebody what would happen without identifying the actor and say Their dog will be put to sleep The next one is when the actor is unknown and this time I have a question for you I want you to change this question from the active to the passive And that question is has anyone fed the cat. This is a question in the active voice How would you change it to the passive and I'm not going to give you any hints this time?
So what do you think? Has anyone fed the cat again? The actor is unknown.
We have that indefinite pronoun anyone So if we change this to the passive, I think a very common question Someone might ask is has the cat been fed We're still using the present perfect in the question And in the grammar is going to remain the same has The cat you remember that object is going to move to the front and it will go After that, helping verb has the cat the verb to be been plus the past participle fed Has the cat been fed, we don't need to say by anyone because well It's not really relevant. We don't know so it's very common just to a say has the cat been fed And then I have a a command for you that I want you to change and that is no smoking Now we did this before I gave you that example, no talking I want you to change no smoking to the passive But I don't want you to use the word not and because of that I really want you to think about what verb should you use what verb is commonly used and This is actually I think a sign that you may see Quite often out in public. Let's stretch this out.
I'll make it a little easier for you the verb you could use is prohibit. We prohibit smoking and then if I give you that I think it's much easier to change and make a passive sentence and you would say smoking is prohibited Smoking is prohibited passive voice it is a It's a firm tone, but it's also I think a little more polite than just saying. Hey, no smoking Just tell somebody smoking is prohibited.
So I hope you have a perfect understanding of active voice passive voice How do you change these sentences as well as when to use the passive voice? I think that is very important because like I said most of the time you are going to use the active voice What I want you to do right now is let's do some more practice I want you to write an Active sentence in the comments and then I want you to go to someone else's comment Reply to their common and change it to the passive So what I want is just to have this Long list of comments in the active and then you can respond to those comments and change the sentence from active to passive So this is a great way to continue practicing Active voice passive voice and changing sentences from active to passive If you enjoyed this lesson, please hit that like button as always.
