In this lesson I'm going to show you

when to use passive and how to form

a passive.So we going to do it the other way round.

I'm going to show you how to form a passive for

every tense in the English language. Take a look

at the following sentences: I have closed the door.

The door has been closed by me. The first sentence is an

active sentence, the second sentence

is a passive sentence.

Now usually we turn active sentences into

passive sentences so what we do is,

the object of the active sentence becomes that subject of the passive

sentence

and the subject of the active sentence becomes the

object of the passive sentence, so

I has become me and the door

has become the subject of the passive sentence.

Now when do we use

a passive? I'm going to tell you some technicalities

be not alarmed the passive is not hard

but there are some things that you need to know. We use

a passive when the subject of a verb

so in the example before, is more

important than the person or thing carrying it out

the object. So in the example before the door was more important

than me closing it.

The object of the passive form is usually left out because is not important

or as in my example preceded by the way it 'by'

When we want to change

an active sentence into a passive as I already said,

the object if the active sentence becomes that subject

of the passive sentence. The passive

always need to contain a form of the auxiliary verb to be

and the past participle. Remember the English language has

regular and irregular verbs. So for the regular verbs

a past aprticiple is made by adding 'ed' to the base from of the verb

or we use its own unique form, so for

instance take - took - taken the past participle will be

taken know the auxiliary verb

takes the tense if the verb in the active sentence, so when we change an

active sentence into passive we need to put

verb to be in the tense of

the active sentence. The main verb in the active sentence is turned into

past participle. Now I don't hopethat your head is spinning because it's

really quite easy

I'll show you. So we are going to turn

an active present simple into a passive

present simple. She buys tomatoes

Now remember we're going to swap

she and tomatoes around so we're going to start with tomatoes.

A passive is made

by the verb to be and the past participle so

we need to pick the correct form of the verb to be for tomatoes

which is 'are' here so Tomatoes are bought by her.

Remember: to buy - bought - bought. Another example the present continuous.

An active present continuous is They are taking down the police station.

For the passive form

we need to maintain that continuous form that's quite hard

so we need either to use to use: am, are or is

and then the continuous form being

and the past participle. Don't forget to put

being into a continuous passive when your active sentence was

present continuous you have to maintain that

you can't swap tenses. The police station is being taken down.

So please note that we've put

the police station into the slots of the subject

in the passive sentence as it is important by whom

the police station is being taken down.

So again don't forget to put in being.

Let's have a look at present perfect an active

present perfect is: I havve painted the door so we are going to change it into a

present perfect passive and remember the door has to become

the subject. So a passive is made by

have or has and then a form of to be

and since it is perfect here we need to use the

perfect form of the verb to be so here it is been

and the past participle of the verb to paint.

The door has been painted.

So pay attention, in the active form it was I have

but since in the passive form

the door has become third person singular you need to use

has. Now the past tenses, first the past simple active:

They sold the car yesterday.

Remember just as in the present simple we need to use

a form of 'to be' so was or

were and the possible participle.

The car was sold yesterday. Past continuous active

They were cleaning the house.

So to make it into a passive we will make the

house the subject of the passive form.

Remeber don't forget to put in being

Passive: was or were + being

and the past participle. The house was being cleaned

it was done by them, but that's not important

the past perfect, the active past perfect

they had given him a job and the passive

we use had + been justi as in the present perfect

and past participle to give gave given.

He had been given a job.

Now I'm going to take you through the future tenses

This simple future: He will give you his number.

For the passive we use will and then the infinitive form

of the verb to be, the base form and the past partciple

You will be given his number.

The past future: He assured me he would post the letter.

That is a past future.

For the passive we use would and the past participle:

He assured me that the letter would be posted.

And now the future perfect: We will have put up the tent before you get back.

and the passive will + have been +

past participle. Remember it's a perfect so we need to use been.

The tent will have been put up before you get back.

So that were all the tenses.

Remember use a form of to be and the past participle

Finally the modals: can, could, should, might

must, may etc. Quite easy an active

example: She can help you with your homework.

Can is a modal here. To turn it into a passive you use can

the base form of the verb to be, which is be and the past participle

you can be helped with your homework.

Now in the English language we do not only have objects

there is also such a thing as an indirect object

I will show you an active example. They gave me the letter

they is a subject

and the letter is object, the direct

object but me here is an indirect object.

So what do you need to do when you change an active sentence

into a passive when it contains both an object

the letter and me an indirect object?

For the direct subject the letter was given to me

quite straightforward. But then for the

indirect object: I was given the letter

So please note that the me has changed into an 'I'.

Because you cannot say: Me was given the letter.

So both options here.

We also have such a thing as a prepositional object.

somebody must deal with the problem.

'with the problem' is what we call a prepositional

object. To make it into a passive you

do the following: the problem must be dealth with

so remember must here is a modal we add 'be'

and then the past participle form of

of deal which is dealt

so the problem must be dealt with and then we put the preposition at

the end of the sentence.

Let's have a look at passives and subclauses.

He suggested that that we should leave at once.

'that we should leave at once' is a subclause

now a subclause is a piece of a sentence but that cannot exist on its own,

so if would change it, it would say that we should leave at once was suggested

but that's a bit weird. So what we do here

we use it, now remember

it does not occur in the active sentence but because

'that we should leave at once was suggested' is a bit strange

we simply make use of 'it'

It was suggested that we should leave at once

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