Learning English

Catherine    
Hello and welcome to 6 Minute Grammar with me, Catherine.

Finn   
And me, Finn. And in today's programme we're talking about… Oww! You hit me! Catherine! That hurt!

Catherine    
Yes, Finn, I hit you.

Finn   
I hope there's a grammatical reason for that!

Catherine    
Always, Finn. I wouldn't hit you without a good reason. And the reason is, we're talking about active and passive voice today. And in the active voice we say Catherine hit Finn: subject - verb - object. Like this:

Finn   
Oww! You hit me again!!

Catherine
All in the name of grammar.

Finn
OK. You hit me. Subject - verb – object.

Catherine    
That's right. So, speaking grammatically, the subject – that's me – performs or does the action…

Finn   
And the object of the verb – that’s me - receives or gets the action.

Catherine
Another one?

Finn
No. Catherine hit Finn. But of course I'm more important than you Catherine, so I want to be at the beginning of the sentence. Let's say it this way: Finn was hit by Catherine. Don't do it again.

Catherine    
Ok - Finn was hit by Catherine. We put the receiver of the verb at the beginning of the sentence, plus the verb to be and the past participle, to make a passive sentence: Finn was hit by Catherine. So here's Rob with some examples of active and passive sentences. First an active sentence:

Rob    
Millions of people use the internet.

Catherine    
And with the receiver of the verb at the beginning of the sentence – in the passive voice.

Rob
The internet is used by millions of people.

Catherine    
Active:

Rob
A thief stole my car.

Catherine    
Passive:

Rob
My car was stolen by a thief.

Catherine    
Active:

Rob
Somebody rescued the child.

Catherine    
Passive:

Rob
The child was rescued by somebody.

Finn   
Thanks Rob. And now that Catherine has stopped hitting me, we can look at that last pair of sentences more closely.

Catherine    
OK.

Finn   
Thank you. Right, in many situations, the passive sentence the child was rescued would sound more natural than somebody rescued the child - now, that's if we feel the child is more important than the rescuer.

Catherine    
Yes - and we don't know who rescued the child, so we don't need to say by somebody. It's just: The child was rescued.

Finn
That's right - if you don't know who or what is doing the verb, or if it's not important, or if it's obvious, you can leave it out completely, like this:

Rob    
My car was stolen.

Catherine    
Let's have another sentence in active voice:

Rob    
The storm destroyed the bridge.

Finn   
And here it is in passive voice:

Rob    
The bridge was destroyed by the storm.

Catherine    
Here, the subject - the storm - is important, so we don't leave it out.

IDENT          
You're listening to bbclearningenglish.com.

Catherine    
And we're talking about active and passive voice.

Finn   
That's right. When the thing receiving the action of the verb is important, you can show this importance, by putting it at the start of the sentence, and using the verb to be plus the past participle of the verb to make a passive form.

Catherine    
And if the person or thing doing the verb is obvious, unimportant or unknown, you can leave it out.

Finn   
Now for our quiz. Which of these news headlines sounds better: is it a):

Rob
85-year-old Mary Hiker has climbed Mount Kilimanjaro.

Finn   
Or b):

Rob
Mount Kilimanjaro has been climbed by an 85-year-old, Mary Hiker.

Catherine    
Well, they are grammatically correct, but the active sentence a) is the best - if you agree that the name and age of the climber is more important than the name of the mountain she climbed!

Rob
85-year-old Mary Hiker has climbed Mount Kilimanjaro.

Finn   
Next up - option a):

Rob
The police arrested the burglars and took them to the police station.

Finn   
And option b):

Rob
The burglars were arrested and taken to the police station.

Catherine    
And the passive in option b) is best - we can guess that the police arrested the burglars, so we don't need to mention them.

Rob
The burglars were arrested and taken to the police station.

Finn   
And the last one - option a):

Rob
William posted a photo of his birthday party on his webpage.

Finn   
And option b):

Rob
A photo of William's birthday party was posted by him on his webpage.

Catherine    
And option a) sounds much better - because William is most definitely the subject of this sentence!

Rob
William posted a photo of his birthday party on his webpage.

Catherine    
Now, here's a tip for using the passive voice in spoken English. You may hear people use the verb get instead of the verb be, like this:

Rob
Your bike will get stolen if you don't lock it!

Finn   
Right. And if you hit your colleagues, Catherine?

Catherine
If you hit your colleagues for a non-grammatical reason, Finn, you will get into trouble.

Finn   
OK, thank you very much, and there we are: the passive voice is made with an object, plus the verb to be, plus the past participle.

Catherine    
And we use it when we're more interested in the object of a verb, or if the subject is unknown or obvious.

Finn   
There's more about this on our website at bbclearningenglish.com. Join us again soon for more 6 Minute Grammar.

Both  
Bye.