Video summary

Book 2, Unit 11 Part 1 - Passive voice (simple past)

Main summary

Key takeaways

Educational

Main ideas and lessons

Passive voice vs. active voice

  • Active voice: the doer (agent) comes at the beginning, and the receiver (thing/person affected) comes at the end.

    • Example: The volunteers helped the refugees.

  • Passive voice: the receiver is moved to the beginning of the sentence.

    • Example: The refugees were helped by the volunteers.

Why use the passive voice

  1. To put the receiver in focus (make it the important part of the sentence).
    • Example: The child was found by the police (focus on the child).
  2. Because the doer is sometimes obvious, so mentioning it is unnecessary.
    • Example: The surgery was completed (by the surgeon).
  3. Because the doer is unknown (e.g., a mystery).
    • Example: The house was robbed (by someone).

Target grammar: Passive voice with “by” in the Simple Past

  • The passive structure (for any sentence in this lesson’s focus) is:

Receiver + (be in simple past) + past participle + (by + doer)

Method / instruction steps (detailed)

A) Convert an active simple past sentence to passive (with “by”)

  1. Step 1: Identify the receiver in the active sentence (the thing/person affected).
  2. Step 2: Move that receiver to the start of the passive sentence.
  3. Step 3: Add the correct form of “be” in the simple past:
    • was (singular receiver) / were (plural receiver)
  4. Step 4: Use the past participle of the main verb.
  5. Step 5 (optional but used here): Add “by + doer” if you want to say who performed the action.

B) Examples shown

  • Active: A dog bit my teacher. Passive: My teacher was bitten (by a dog).

  • Active: Andrew wrote the book. Passive: The book was written (by Andrew).

C) Common past participle corrections emphasized

  • bit → bitten
  • write → written

Practice / correctness checks (how the lesson tests passive voice)

Example set 1: Theft and bicycle

  • ❌ The thief stole the bicycle.
    • Active voice (doer first).
  • ❌ The thief was stolen by the bicycle.
    • Wrong roles: doer is in the receiver position.
  • ✅ The bicycle was stolen by the thief.
    • Correct passive: receiver first + was + past participle + by + doer

Example set 2: Event seen

  • ❌ Millions of people saw the event.
    • Active voice (doer first).
  • ❌ The event seen by millions of people.
    • Missing be (“was”).
  • ✅ The event was seen by millions of people.
    • Correct passive: event + was + past participle + by + doer (doer included as “by” phrase)

Example set 3: Writing a message

  • ❌ Andrew wrote the message.
    • Active voice.
  • ❌ The message was wrote by Andrew.
    • Wrong verb form: should be past participle “written,” not “wrote.”
  • ✅ The message was written by Andrew.
    • Correct passive with correct past participle.

Speakers / sources featured

  • Julien Beck (mentioned)
  • Dez (mentioned)
  • Dr. Beane’s (mentioned; corresponds to a restaurant/café)
  • Raphael (mentioned; associated with the café owner)
  • The Barista Society (mentioned as giving the award)
  • The Council (mentioned as inspecting the café)
  • The volunteers and refugees (example characters)
  • The police (example source for the doer)
  • The surgeon (example source for the doer)
  • The newspaper / readers / interviewers (context via story in the newspaper)
  • No credited narrator/author is explicitly named beyond the course characters mentioned above.

Original video