How and When to Use the Passive Voice 🤔 English Grammar

Hi. I'm Jennifer from English with Jennifer. Some students may think that

grammar was invented to make your lives miserable.

I'd like to convince you that grammar is a tool, and once you master it, you can

communicate clearly and accurately. So let's take the time to study a bit of

grammar. Let's study the passive.

I don't know who invented grammar? Do you? Actually, it was probably many different

people who identified the patterns, wrote the rules, and came up with the

terminology. Was it someone a few centuries ago? Was it someone in ancient

Rome? Honestly, the details aren't that

important, so I chose to say grammar was invented rather than someone invented

grammar. "Was invented" is an example of the passive. We formed the passive with BE

+ the past participle. That's the -ed form of a regular verb and the third

form of an irregular verb, like heard, seen, built. We use the passive when we

don't know or we don't want a name who the doer of the action is. Grammar wasn't

invented to torture you. Invented by whom? Don't know. Not important. The doer is

also called the agent or the performer. In some sentences, there's not just a

doer, but there's also a receiver.

Transitive verbs, verbs that take an object, can change from active to passive

by shifting the focus from the doer to the receiver. The object of a verb can

become the subject of a passive sentence.

Why did someone invent grammar?

Why was grammar invented? Why did someone create grammar rules? Why were grammar

rules created?

I gave examples. Examples were given.

So there are two voices in English: The active voice focuses on the doer of the

action. The passive voice focuses on the receiver of the action. Transitive verbs

give us the choice to use the active or the passive voice. Do I have to master

grammar? What if grammar isn't fully mastered?

The truth is that grammar is the way we all understand and agree how language

works. There wasn't a single person who invented grammar. Right? Grammar evolved

over time. Language is still evolving.

Take the verb "evolve." Grammar evolved over time. Language is still evolving. In

my examples, does "evolve" have an object? No. So can I form the passive?

No. Only a transitive verb can shift back and forth between active and passive.

Look. Which of these sentences can become passive?

A, C, and D can all become passive because they have transitive verbs. Sentence B

uses "teaches" as an intransitive verb. Remember some verbs have transitive and

intransitive meanings, so you need to be careful. If I use the passive and I want

to name the doer, I use a by-phrase. That textbook was written by Jennifer.

Sometimes my videos are recommended by other teachers.

But a lot of the time with the passive, we don't need a by- phrase. For example, I

was invited to speak at a regional conference. By whom? Not important.

Well, maybe it's important for me to know and remember, but it's not important for

me to share a name with you. The exception to what I just told you about

naming the doer with a by-phrase is the stative passive.The stative passive

doesn't describe an action; it describes a state or a condition. The stative

passive is formed the same way BE + a past participle, but we can use other

prepositional phrases after the verb.

Grammar is composed of rules. English is classified as a Germanic language.

Jennifer is married to a Russian. All these passive verbs describe states.

There's no doer of an action because there is no action. For more practice

with the stative passive, check out my video on this topic. I'll put the link in

the video description. Right now, we'll turn our attention back to the dynamic

passive. These are transitive verbs that can be written in the passive or the

active voice.

First, let's make sure you can easily form the passive. Change all my sentences

to the passive voice. Remember that the form of BE changes to show time and to

agree with the subject. The main verb is the past participle. Use a by-phrase if

you think it's necessary. One. The rules are followed by many. Two.

New lessons are being created by our teachers. Three. A new video was published by

Jennifer. Four.

Different options were being evaluated by the team. Five.

UFO sightings have been documented by investigators. Six.

Sharks had been seen in the area. Seven.

New apps will be created by educators.

Eight.

Our actions are going to be judged by future generations. Nine.

A vaccine will have been found by then.

Let's see how you do with some modal verbs. Okay? Ten.

The video can be paused at any time. Eleven.

Our parents should be respected. Twelve.

Grammar must have been studied back then.

You may be wondering about other verb forms that we didn't practice, like the

past perfect progressive. The truth is we don't really use the passive in those

other forms. The bigger challenge, I think, is deciding which voice to use. If both

active and passive verb forms are possible, why is one sometimes better

than the other? Here's our last quiz. Choose the sentence that fits the

situation: active or passive. One.

I'd go with the active voice. This is a job interview. The focus should be on the

doer of the action, the job candidate. What can you do? What value can you add?

Also, in conversation, the passive isn't used as frequently. Two.

I'd go with the passive voice. The focus isn't on the doer. It's on the receiver

of the action: the invoice, the status of the invoice. I might also be trying to

protect the person who failed to submit the invoice on time. Three.

This is a trick question. Either one could work, but I'm going to go with the

passive. Do you know why? Because artistic works are an exception. We can use the

passive to give credit to someone for an artistic work: directed by, produced by,

composed by, written by. We're actually highlighting the person who should

receive credit.

Four.

You can use either here, active or passive, but I'd go with the passive

because it shifts the focus to the receiver of the action: the victims of

the tornado. That's the real tragedy here. And if this is a news article, the

headlines would likely be "23 Killed in Tornado." We see abbreviated grammar in

news headlines, and you need to be able to recognize what the full structure is.

"23 Killed" means "23 were killed" or "23 have been killed." Five, last one.

Here I'd go with the passive because I think the focus should be on the

receiver of the action: the elderly. It's obvious that some kind of authority is

advising them to stay at home. Is it really important to name the authority?

No.

So remember some common reasons why we don't name the doer and why we leave out

a by-phrase: Because the doer is obvious, Because we don't know who the doer is.

Because it's not important. And the exception is when we speak about

artistic works and we're giving credit to someone. Then we use the by-phrase.

So when is the active voice preferred? Well, anytime we want to focus on the

doer of the action. For example, the active voice is

preferred in resume writing. This is when we want dynamic language. I led a team of

ten and consistently met our quarterly goals. The active voice allows me to

focus on what I achieved. The passive voice is more common in formal English.

Military medals, such as the Air Force Cross, are awarded to members of the

Armed Forces for their distinguished service and valor. The grammar and the

vocabulary make this statement formal.

For this reason, the passive voice is also more common in scholarly texts. The

Battle of Gettysburg was fought in the summer of 1863. It was considered a

turning point in the American Civil War.

Before we end, I'd like to share two common sayings with the passive.

When something is easy to talk about, but hard to do, we have the expression: easier

said than done. Something can be said. Something can be done. Which one is

easier? The full idea is that a goal is easier said aloud than actually done.

We're focusing on what we want to achieve. The focus is on the receiver, not

the doer: easier said than done. And the last one: nothing ventured, nothing gained.

The full idea is that if nothing is ventured, then nothing is gained. You have

to risk something in order to get something. The focus is on what we want

to get, on what we want to achieve: nothing ventured nothing gained.

Tell me if you agree with that saying: nothing ventured, nothing gained.

And also tell me an example of something easier said than done. That's all for now.

Was the lesson useful? Please remember to like the video. I hope you're feeling

more confident now about the passive and you can use the passive more confidently

going forward. As always. thanks for watching and happy studies!

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