[0:00]They delivered the letter or the letter was delivered. Well, if you use the wrong one with a native speaker like me, we can understand something completely different. It can cause confusion and it can stop you from being clearly understood. Believe me, I have a lot of students and a Spanish wife. This happens a lot. So, yes, knowing when and how to use the passive voice is really important. It's actually super simple, and after watching this video, you will know exactly why we need the passive, when you must use it, and how to form it in all 12 tenses. If you keep avoiding the passive, you'll never reach an advanced level of English. So you really need this. Are you ready?
[1:02]Okay, I'm going to explain how we can use the passive voice in every tense in English. So you can use it in absolutely every situation. But before I do that, let's have a look at when we actually need the passive and not the active, and what kind of situations it's useful in. So we normally use the passive when we don't know who did the action. For example, my wallet was stolen. That is the passive, and we use it because we don't know who did the action. We don't know who stole the wallet. We also use it when we don't care who did the action, or it simply doesn't matter. For example, the road is being repaired. It doesn't matter who is physically repairing the road, the only important thing that we need to know is that next week the road will be new and fixed. And the third reason we use it is when the focus is on the result, not the person. For example, a new law has been introduced. Here, we're interested in the law, not the person who created it, the focus of the conversation, the focus of the sentence is on the law. Okay, now if you're new here, I'm Greg, from English with Greg. Here, I make advanced grammar simple and teach you British English pronunciation, so you can speak clearly and understand easily. And you can now download the new edition of my quick fix magazine. It's the perfect edition to this lesson because it helps you really learn the passive voice because you see it used naturally in a short story. You'll also learn some very common chunks from the story, phrases that you can actually use when speaking that will help you speak more fluently. There's also a quiz, a writing challenge and a few other fun activities to help you remember the passive voice in a cool fun way. So just click up there, scan the QR code or click the link in the description, enter your details and I will send it to you via email. Okay, so how do we form the passive? Well, it's really easy. Well, very simply, each basic sentence in English has three parts, the subject, that is the person or thing that does an action. The verb, that is the action, and the object, that is the thing that receives the action. And we normally have a very strict structure in English, which is subject, verb, object, like I am making a cake. However, when we use the passive, we switch it, we change the order and we put the object first. This puts the emphasis and the focus on the object, and it makes the person who is doing the verb much more unimportant and insignificant. That's why we use the passive, and we just have to change a few little things grammatically so that it makes sense. So, the structure that we need to use is the object first, then the verb to be, which we have to conjugate, and then the past participle. Like eaten, spoken, taken. The only thing you need to remember is that we change the verb B depending on the tense. And the good news is that the passive doesn't even exist in some of the 12 tenses. So there's even less to learn. Okay, so let's go through each tense, and I will show you how to form the passive voice. Okay, so let's begin with the present tenses, starting with the present simple, where we simply need am, is, or are, like I am, he is, you are, plus the past participle. For example, so an active sentence looks like this. The postman delivers the letters every morning. Here we are saying who does the action, but if we use the passive, and we put the object first, then we need this structure. The letters are delivered every morning. This puts the focus on the letters, it's not important, and we don't care, or it's obvious, who is doing the action. In the present continuous, again, we have am, is, or are, I am, he is, you are, plus the word being, and then the past participle. So an active sentence in the present continuous is Phil is cleaning the room. Okay, that is what is happening right now, and we are saying who is doing the action, but in the passive, we put the object first, the room, and then is being cleaned. Okay, so as with the normal present simple or present continuous tenses, we use the passive in the present simple to talk about things that happen generally, like the letters are delivered every morning. This happens regularly, and we use the present continuous, like the room is being cleaned, to describe what is happening right now. By the way, if you're preparing for a B2 exam or if you want to reach that upper intermediate B2 level, or if you just simply want to feel confident using grammar like this, then check out my brilliant B2 course. There's a whole section on the passive, you will absolutely master this grammar, no doubt, inside that course. And there is all the other grammar that you need to reach a B2 level of fluency. Oh, I'll put a link in the description for you. Okay, let's have a look at the past tenses. The past simple, was or were, like I was or you were, plus the past participle. For example, an active sentence is this. Amy directed the film. Okay, here we are interested in who directed the film. Amy, but if we don't know or don't care who directed the film, we put the object first. The film plus was directed. The film was directed in 1999. With the past continuous, well, you remember the present continuous, it was am, are or is, plus the word being and the past participle. Well, with the past continuous, we just put am, are, or is in the past. So was or were, and the rest is the same. Was or were being past participle. So the active sentence looks like this. My colleague was printing the documents, but the passive sentence, put the document at the beginning, the documents were being printed. Now, by the way, you might have seen the passive used with the word get instead of the word be. So, let's talk about that. Sometimes we use get instead of be to form the passive, and it's quite common in informal English. But the key difference is, when we use be, the focus is on the result. And when we use get, the focus is more on the actual action. So for example, the window was broken. Here we're using the verb to be. Was, the window was broken. And we use this to put the focus on the result, like my window is broken. I gotta buy a new window, or call the insurance company, or buy a new window. The focus is on the fact that ah, the window is broken. However, if we say the window got broken, here, the result isn't on the fact that my window is broken. Here, the focus is on the action of somebody breaking the window, like maybe there was a fight, and as a result of that fight, that action happened. The action of breaking my window. Okay, so it's a small difference, but it's one of those little nuances in English that can really help us express ourselves more accurately. And it's useful to know if you want a very advanced level of English. This use of the word get is actually one of the 10 ways we use get in English, and if you want to learn all of them, then I've got another video that shows you exactly how. I'll put a link there, and there's a link in the description too. So, basically, if you're not very, very confident with the passive, just use be, that's fine for most situations. But if you want to really express yourself more accurately, then using be to focus on the result, and get to focus on the action, will really help you take your English to a wow, level. All right, let's have a look at the future tenses. Again, it's really easy. Okay, the future simple, how do we put the verb to be in the future simple? Will be. Okay, so the passive is will be plus the past participle. For example, the work will be finished by 5:00 p.m. For the future continuous, as with the present continuous and the past continuous, we conjugate the verb be, like will be, then being, and then the past participle. Will be being, for example, at 3:00, the stage will be being set up before the event. I mean, yes, this is grammatically correct, but we don't like all this. BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBB, it sounds just like the, sounds very strange, and if we can avoid saying this in normal spoken English, we avoid it. Okay, so you don't need to worry too much about the future continuous in the passive. All right, let's move on to the perfect tenses. Before we do, just a quick reminder to get the new passive edition of the Quickfix magazine. You'll see all these passive tenses in a story, learn chunks, do a quiz, practice your writing. It's a great resource that I have made for you, and it's free. Okay, let's move on to those perfect tenses, starting with the present perfect. To do this, we use has or have been plus the past participle. So in the active, we say Andy has sent the package, but in the passive, we put the object at the beginning, the package. The package has been sent. Okay, are you ready for some great news? Present perfect continuous is not used in the passive. We don't use it. Okay, if we used it, it would look like it has been being sent, and again, as I said, just BBB, no, don't do it. Easy. So, the passive is just simply not used in the present perfect continuous. The past perfect had been plus the past participle. Easy. So, in the active voice, Steve had deleted the emails before I saw them, but in the passive, we put the object, the emails at the beginning. The emails had been deleted before I saw them. And as with the present perfect continuous, we don't use the passive in the past perfect continuous. Okay, it would be something like it had been being written, nah, too long, it's too BBB, too weird, don't use it. Okay, now for the future perfect, so the present perfect was have been completed. The future perfect is will have been completed. We're talking about the future, so we use will. It makes sense. So, in the active, we could say the building company will have completed the building by next year. Quite obvious who is building it, right? So, we put the object at the beginning and say the building will have been completed by next year. Much better. Okay, as with all the perfect continuous tenses, we don't use the passive with the future perfect continuous. We'll have been being completed, nah, horrible. Don't do it. Okay, now, imagine you're talking to someone later today. You might say, I saw a video on the passive earlier. It was explained clearly. That's passive, because who explained it isn't important. Okay, they don't know me, and they probably don't care who I am. But if you want to make me happy, and if you do want to give importance to the person who taught you, then subscribe. And that would make me really, really happy. Okay, and you'll learn so much more advanced grammar from me too. I have so many new videos coming soon, so subscribe. Right, let's quickly summarize when we use the passive voice. We use it when three situations. We use it when we don't know who did the action. It doesn't matter, we don't care who did the action, and the focus is on the result, not the actual person who did the action. So, let's go back to those two examples that I shared with you at the beginning of this video. They delivered the letter. Now this is active, and this is actually something my Spanish wife said to me recently. And I thought, who? Who is they? Who is she talking about? The neighbors, some friends, a group of strangers. It wasn't clear what she actually wanted to say was the letter was delivered. That's passive, it's clear, it's focused on the result, and it communicates exactly what she wanted to say. So, basically, we have the letter now. It doesn't matter who brought it, and that's why the passive voice is so useful. It removes confusion, and it puts the focus where it belongs. If you say they delivered the letter, my mind or a native speaker's mind initially goes to the most important part of that sentence, which is at the beginning, which is they. And if you start a sentence by saying they, we have no idea who you're talking about. So, it causes confusion for the rest of the conversation, and that's not what you want. So, wasn't that simple? All you need to do is change the verb be, and it's quite easy to know when to use the passive. Now, as I mentioned earlier, we can use get instead of be in the passive. That's just one of the 10 different ways we can use the word get in English. So, watch that video next to learn the rest, and don't forget to download this lesson's special edition of the Quickfix Magazine.
