6.

1 ACTIVE
The passive.

[00:00:01] First the passive isn't actually a tense. It's what we call a voice, but we can still think
of it as a tense just to make it a little easier to learn. The main thing that the passive voice does
is turn the object of a sentence into the subject.

[00:00:16] This is especially common when reporting information, especially on news shows or
when watching the news late at night. While the active voice is much more common and
preferred compared to the passive voice, we still do use it a fair amount in English. Especially
compared to other languages.

[00:00:32] But before we go much deeper into the use of the passive, we're going to convert
some sentences from active to passive. Then we will focus on how to use the passive in the
present and past.

[00:00:43] The children wash their dirty clothes.

[00:00:45] This is an active sentence because we have the subject, the children, doing
something. Our focus is still on the subject and the action that they are taking.

[00:00:55] The dirty clothes are washed by the children.

[00:00:58] This is now the present passive. The subject of the sentence is now actually the dirty
clothes, and that's where our attention is too. We use by to show that the children did this
action. So the clothes are the new subject in this sentence.

[00:01:14] He crashed his car.

[00:01:16] This is an active sentence, the subject he did something. What did he do? He crashed
his car.

[00:01:23] His car was crashed.

[00:01:25] Now we're less concerned with the person who crashed. In fact in this sentence, we
remove the original subject completely. The main focus is now the car. Which is also our subject
in the passive, and we forget about the man who crashed the car in the active example. This is
why new shows often do this. Because people care more about what happened and not who did
it.

[00:01:49] Using the passive in the present simple.

[00:01:51] We form the present simple passive with the subject and then to be conjugated in
the present, followed by the past participle. So the past participle replaces our active verb.
[00:02:04] I'm going to give you some sentences now, first in the passive and then in the active.

[00:02:08] I'm angered by this news.

[00:02:13] This news angers me.

[00:02:15] He's called Tim by his friends.

[00:02:19] His friends call him Tim.

[00:02:20] She's reported by the store clerk.

[00:02:25] The store clerk reports her.

[00:02:27] It is made with milk.

[00:02:30] We make it with milk.

[00:02:32] We're asked for in the office.

[00:02:36] The students asked for us.

[00:02:38] They're angered.

[00:02:41] He angers them.

[00:02:43] You are never invited.

[00:02:46] They never invite you.

[00:02:48] Passive negative in the present simple.

[00:02:50] The negation is pretty simple. We just add not after the verb to be.

[00:02:55] I'm not angered by this news.

[00:02:57] He's not called Tim by his friends.

[00:03:00] She's not reported, and so on.

[00:03:02] Present passive questions.

[00:03:04] To ask a question with the passive. We use inversion. So the subject and conjugated
to be change places.

[00:03:12] Am I angered by this news?

[00:03:13] Is he called Tim by his friends?

[00:03:15] Is she reported? And so on.

[00:03:20] The only thing that changes here is how we conjugate to be, because now it's in the
past. So let's change our present simple examples into the past simple. Pause the video and do
this now before I show you the answers!

[00:03:35] I was angered by this news.

[00:03:37] This news angered me.

[00:03:39] He was called Tim by his friends.

[00:03:41] His friends called him Tim.

[00:03:43] She was reported by the store clerk.

[00:03:45] The store clerk reported her.

[00:03:47] It was made with milk.

[00:03:49] We made it with milk.

[00:03:51] We were asked for in the office.

[00:03:53] The students asked for us.

[00:03:55] They were angered.

[00:03:56] You were never invited.

[00:03:58] They never invited you.

[00:04:00] Making it negative.

[00:04:01] Negation is the same in the past, just put not after our conjugated to be verb.

[00:04:06] I was not angered by this news.

[00:04:09] He was not called Tim by his friends.

[00:04:11] She was not reported, and so on.

[00:04:13] Asking questions in the past.

[00:04:15] And again, to ask questions we use inversion. So flip the subject and the to be verb.

[00:04:21] Was I angered by this news?

[00:04:23] Was he called Tim by his friends?

[00:04:28] Using by in the passive.

[00:04:30] In the passive, we often use by to show who performed an action, who or what did
something.

[00:04:36] I was raised by my mother.

[00:04:38] The iPhone was created by Apple.

[00:04:40] This desk was made by Ikea.

[00:04:42] We were helped by a nice worker.

[00:04:45] Should you use the passive?

[00:04:47] There are a few situations when the passive voice is preferred. 1: when the actor is
unknown.

[00:04:53] If you don't know who did something it will sound better to use the passive voice,
since we don't focus on who did something in the passive.

[00:05:01] They're beautiful, but we still don't know who the paintings were made by.

[00:05:05] 2: we don't care about who is doing it. We just care about what is being done.

[00:05:10] A large number of windmills were constructed outside of the city last week.

[00:05:14] 3: You want to focus on the object not the actor.

[00:05:18] The first personal computer was created in 1974..

[00:05:21] 4: Reports, especially scientific reports tend to be in the passive to remain objective
and scientific.

[00:05:28] The result was observed in nine out of ten cases.

[00:05:32] When to avoid the passive!

[00:05:35] Avoid the passive when you need to use direct and brief language. The passive voice
is regarded as being wordy and a bit formal or stuffy. That's why we often associate it with news
and reports.

[00:05:48] Finally: It's purposefully vague. We generally want to focus on who did something in
the active voice and not the something that someone did. Like in the passive, so in essays or
when talking, you want to use the active and not the passive voice to be engaging and clear.