The Passive: When, why, and how to use it

Adam: Hi again. This is Adam. I'm here to you with another lesson from www.

engvid. com. And today's lesson is a little bit complicated, but a little bit basic at the same time.

Today, we're gonna look at the passive form of the verb. Now, before we get to look at the more complicated things — like the four reasons to use the passive — let's have a very quick review of: What is a passive, and how do we construct it? So, if we look at a basic sentence: "The cat ate the rat.

" Okay? Very easy. We have our subject, we have our verb, and we have our object.

Very simple. Everybody knows this; no problem. What we have to remember is that in this sentence, the subject is doing the action to the object.

Good. In a passive sentence, we are reversing this order. Okay?

We are going, now, this way. What was the object is now the subject. And we have a verb: "was eaten"; "by the cat" is now less important.

If we want to say it, we say it; if we don't, we take it out. But this is now not an object. We call this, now, the agent — the person or thing that is doing the action.

So, the difference here is that the subject is now receiving the action. Very easy; no problem. How do we create the passive?

"Be" verb plus the past participle; "verb three" some of you call it. Okay, no problem. Now, what we have to concentrate on is the four reasons we use the passive.

Students always ask me: "I know how to use the passive, but why am I using the passive? I can communicate easily. I can speak easily, I can write easily, and never use the passive.

" Of course you can, but there are reasons to use it. Okay, so the first reason that we would use a passive is because the subject is unknown, obvious, or not important. If we don't know who or what did the action, we can use a passive.

If we know very clearly, it's very obvious who did the action, then we can use a passive. If the person or thing that did the action is just not important to our sentence, we can take it out and use the passive. I'm gonna give you some examples; don't worry.

Another reason and a very important reason, especially when you're writing, is to shift focus of subject. If you want the object of your last sentence to now be the subject of your next sentence, you can use the passive to make that switch. Remember: "The cat ate the rat" — we switched it: "The rat was eaten by the cat.

" Great. Now, again, coming back to that question: "I don't need to use it; I can communicate easily without it. " Yes, of course you can, but you want sentence variety.

If you say: "He did this, he did that, then he did this, then he did that" — that's very boring. Nobody wants to listen to it. Really, nobody wants to read it; trust me.

And the last reason is for coherence — to make it something very understandable; and flow — to make your. . .

especially writing, flow from one sentence to the next; one idea to the next. Makes it more enjoyable for the reader. Now, let's look at some specific examples of each one of these reasons.

Okay, so let's look at subject is unknown, obvious, not important first. "The building was vandalized. " Now, first of all, what does "vandalized" mean?

"Vandalized" means that somebody came and did some damage to the building. Maybe they spray-painted; maybe they broke some windows, etcetera. So, who did this?

We don't know. I could say that: "Vandals did this", but I don't need to say it; that comes from the word — it's obvious. I could say that: "Somebody did this", but, why?

Better to use the passive and concentrate on the building, and what happened to it. "The flowers were delivered on time. " Who delivered it?

Well, it's obvious — either the flower company or the delivery company. I don't need to say it; it's very clear that one of these two delivered the flowers. "The roads were fixed quickly.

" Who fixed them? Who cares? They're fixed — that's what's important.

I can drive; I'm happy. Now, we can also use the passive and we commonly use the passive to give information. "The airplane was invented in the early 20th century.

" Exactly when — I don't want to say. Who invented it? I don't want to say.

Why? Maybe there's a little controversy, there; maybe not everybody believes the Wright brothers invented the airplane in 1903. So, what do I want to concentrate on?

The airplane. Right? That's why I'm using the passive.

We have to choose what is more important and what is less important. So, this is the main reason; this is the most common reason we use the passive. Okay?

Let's look at some other reasons. Okay, let's look at the third reason. Don't worry, I haven't forgotten number two; I'm going to do that after.

First, I want to look at sentence variety. Now, why is this important? This is especially important for any of you who are going to take the IELTS or TOEFL.

Why? Because you're going to have to write an essay. Many, many points come with this little topic, here: Sentence variety.

So, now, you could write all your sentences in a standard subject, verb, object way. You could say: "He did A, then he did B. After that, he did C.

" What is the problem with this? No problem. Grammatically, it's okay.

In terms of English, you can put nice words in here. Okay. What is the problem?

The problem is that it is boring. You don't want a boring essay; you want a fun, lively, engaging essay. This is what the readers are looking for.

Right? "So, how does the passive come into play here? " you ask yourself.

Well, I'll tell you. The passive allows you to play with sentence structure, so it allows you to have different varieties of sentences. "He did A.

" Same start. "C wasn't done until he had completed B. " My mistake, here.

Not only do you have a passive, you have a past perfect — bravo. Extra points for you if you can do this. But, first, you got to have that passive; you got to get to that passive first.

Okay? This gives you sentence variety. Now, when you see the next part, you'll see reasons number two and four together — you'll understand even more how the passive can create nice sentences, create good flow, make it all easier, and focus the reader's attention on exactly what you want them to.

Okay? The passive is very powerful. Remember this.

Let's look at the next examples. Okay, so now we come to what is probably the most important reason to use the passive. And, again, especially for writing, and especially for the IELTS and TOEFL.

We're looking at shifting focus and creating flow in our writing. So, for example, you are writing an essay about Coca-Cola. What is the most important thing you're going to talk about?

Of course, it's Coca-Cola, right? So, you want this to be your subject. "John Pemberton invented Coca-Cola.

" We don't really care about John Pemberton; we care about what he invented. So, we switch around the sentence, right? "Coca-Cola was invented by a pharmacist named John Pemberton.

" Easy. We put the focus on the Coca-Cola; the other information comes later. Now, because he is the last idea we have here, we want to start with him.

"His original recipe contained cocaine. " Okay. Regular sentence; active voice.

Why? Because we have John Pemberton, we want to continue with John Pemberton. But, now, we want to introduce another new idea.

Okay? "Which is why the drink was named Coca-Cola. " I want to bring the reader back to my original subject: Coca-Cola.

So, the passive is used for placement. Where do you want to put your topics? Where do you want to put your subject?

Where do you want to put your object? Where do you want to put your agent, for that matter? So, now, the last idea I'm speaking about is the name, Coca-Cola.

Remember; this is very important. "Today, Coca-Cola" — again, I'm talking about the name; the product — "is a global brand". What is "a brand"?

"A brand" is basically a name. Right? You see how I connected the ideas?

I kept them close to each other. This is where you get flow. Okay?

This is. . .

makes it easy for the reader to follow your ideas. If you have one idea here; and then you talk about it again way down there, sometimes the reader can't make the connection. You want to bring ideas that are similar — that are connected — close together.

"So, today, Coca-Cola is a global brand that is consumed by millions of people. " Now, here, I could say: "Coca-Cola is a global brand that millions of people consume. " But the millions of people, they're not important.

What is important is consumption. This is what you want to focus on. So, what do you do?

You put it in a passive; you bring it closer to your original idea: Brand. This is the subject. This is another.

. . well, this is an adjective clause, really, but we're putting this closer to what the brand is.

The millions of consumers, the millions of people — not really important. We don't care about them. Okay?

So, I hope you understand what I did here. I placed focus on the subject I wanted to; I connected ideas together to create flow; and, most of all, I have sentence variety. I don't say: "John Pemberton invented Coca-Cola.

Coca-Cola had cocaine. He named the drink Coca-Cola because of the cocaine. " Right?

It's very, very boring; very blah —if you know what "blah" means. It means boring. So, what do we do?

We have variety, we have flow, we have focus — everybody's happy. And who's the happiest? You, when you get your high IELTS and TOEFL score.

Okay? Great. Thank you very much for joining me today.

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