Lesson video

Hi, I'm Mr. Buckingham, and it's so good to see you here for today's lesson.

We're going to be covering a lot of ground today and do some really important revision, so I'm looking forward to it and I hope you are too.

Let's get to work.

Today's lesson is called Subject, Object, Active Voice, and Passive Voice, and it comes from our unit called Review, Including Word Class, Sentence Types, Tenses, Commas, And Colons.

By the end of today's lesson, we'll be able to practise subject, object, active voice, and passive voice test questions.

So today we'll be looking really carefully at the role of different words and sentences, and we'll look at how we can convert between active voice and passive voice and think about what happens to the meaning of our sentence when we do that.

We'll also be practising answering lots of different types of test question.

There's lots to do, so let's make a start.

Here are our keywords for today's lesson.

My turn, your turn, subject, object, active voice and passive voice, well done.

So a subject is the noun, noun phrase or pronoun that does or is the main verb in the active voice.

And an object is the noun, noun phrase or pronoun that receives the action of the main verb in the active voice.

The active voice is a spoken or written voice in which the subject does the verb in a sentence.

And the passive voice is a spoken or written voice in which the subject is acted upon by the verb.

And don't worry, we'll talk about all of this in detail as we go through the lesson.

So let's look at our lesson outline.

We're going to start off by looking at subject and object, and then we'll move on to the active and passive voice.

So in a normal, grammatically correct sentence, the subject is the noun, noun phrase or pronoun that does the verb.

And remember, pronouns are words like I, me and you, that replace nouns or noun phrases in a sentence.

So here are some sentences where the subject does the verb.

Alex pushed the ball to me.

Now, you are making it impossible for me.

The swimming club has closed.

Clearly, the Red Team is the winner.

So here we can see the subjects and here we can see the verbs that the subject is doing.

So Alex is doing the verb pushed.

You are doing the verbs are making.

The swimming club is doing the verbs has closed.

And the Red Team is doing the verb is.

Now, usually, as we can see here, the subject comes just before the verb is doing.

And notice that the subject is not always just one word, and it's not always the first word in the sentence.

So we can see the swimming club and the Red Team are both subjects, even though they're more than one word, they're noun phrases.

And we've got you as a pronoun, which is a noun phrase as well.

And we've got you as a pronoun, which is a subject as well.

So let's see if we can circle the subject in each of these sentences and identify the verb that it's doing.

Pause the video and have a go.

Well done, great effort.

So in A, we've got the two of us as a noun phrase, which is a subject doing the verbs has done.

And B, we've got the long march as the subject doing the verb tired.

And then in C, we've got the noun phrase, many people doing the verb pushed.

So the subjects are the two of us, the long march, and many people.

And the verbs are have done, tired, and pushed.

Remember the subject is what normally does the verb in a sentence.

So the subject is the noun that does the verb in a clause.

And sometimes that verb is done to something else, which we call the object.

So let's look at this sentence, the long march tired all of us.

We already said that the verb tired is what's being done and that it's being done by the subject, the long march.

The subject is the noun that does that verb.

But we've also got this, all of us.

And this is the noun, noun phrase or pronoun.

In this case, it's a noun phrase that the verb is being done to.

That's the object.

So the long march is doing the verb tired to all of us.

So all of us is the object in that sentence.

It's what the verb is being done to.

So let's look at two more.

Aisha watched watched the film quietly, and he recognised it immediately.

In these cases we've got a subject, Aisha or he, doing a verb, watched or recognised, to an object, the film or it.

So the subject is doing the verb to an object, and that's what we normally tend to see in sentences.

The subject is a verb, and sometimes there's an object, but not all sentences contain an object.

For instance, Aisha watched is a sentence, and it only contains a subject doing a verb.

It's not being done to an object in that case.

So let's see if you can identify the subject, verb and object in each of these sentences.

Remember, subjects and objects might be more than one word.

So look out for a noun, a noun phrase or a pronoun that is doing a verb or having a verb done to it.

Pause the video and identify the subject, verb and object.

Have a go Well done, good effort.

So A, we've got darkness as a subject doing the verb covered to the object, the world.

And B, we've got the subject, the sunset, doing the verb, lit up, to the object, the whole sky.

And in C, we've got the subject, Jun and I, doing the verb, pushed, to them.

So notice that both the subject and the object can be nouns, noun phrases or pronouns.

We've got the noun phrase, the whole sky as an object for instance.

And we've got the pronoun them as an object as well.

So we have to look what is doing the verb, that's the subject.

And what is the verb being done too? That's the object.

Now the object is always a noun, pronoun, or noun phrase the verb is done to directly.

For instance, the dog licked me and the dog licked its tail.

In both these cases, me and its tail are objects because that verb licked is done directly to those things by the subject, the dog.

But look at these examples.

The dog barked at me.

The dog ran to us.

The dog barked loudly.

These are not objects because the object cannot be a preposition phrase or an adverb.

So if you look at at me, it contains that preposition at before me.

If you look at to us, it contains that preposition to before us.

And that means these can't be objects because a preposition phrase isn't an object.

And if you look at the last one, the dog bark loudly.

Well, that's not something that dog is doing the verb to, it's how the verb is being done.

So adverbs can't be objects either.

So let's have a go.

In these sentences, which sentence has an object? Remember you're looking for a noun and noun phrase or a pronoun that the verb is done to directly, not a preposition phrase or an adverb.

Pause the video and see if you can choose the right one.

Well done, great job.

You're right, it is C.

If you look at C, we've got she the subject, doing the verb gathered directly to the object berries.

So that is an object berries in that sentence.

And A, we've got She looked at me.

At is a preposition, so that's a preposition is not an object.

And B, we've got, she worked quickly.

That's an adverb.

And indeed we've got, she ran towards it.

So it can't be an object there because we've got towards as a preposition in front of it.

Really well done if you spotted C there, nice one.

So a longer sentence might contain several subjects, verbs and objects.

Let's look at this compound sentence.

The cow made the milk, but the farmer made the butter here.

In this first main clause, the cow made the milk.

We've got the subject, the cow doing the verb made to the object, the milk.

But then in the second main clause, the farmer made the butter.

We've got the farmer as the subject doing the verb made to the object, the butter.

So we need to think about who's doing each verb to whom.

Let's have a look at this sentence.

It's another compound sentence.

She's scored the winning goal and we all celebrated the victory.

Can you identify the subjects, the verbs and the objects in this compound sentence.

Pause the video and have a try.

Well done, great effort.

So we can see in that first main clause, she scored the winning goal, we've got she as a subject doing the verb scored to the object, the winning goal.

And the second main clause, we all celebrated the victory, we've got we as the subject or we all, doing the verb celebrated to the object, the victory.

Really well done if you spotted those subjects, verbs and objects.

Let's see if we can do our first task for this lesson.

I'd like you to label each highlighted word in my sentences as either a subject, a verb, or an object.

So you need to think, is it something that is doing a verb, a subject? Is it something that we do, a verb? Or is it something having the verb done directly to it, an object? So here are the sentences.

I only want you to focus on the highlighted words and decide if they're subjects, verbs or objects.

Pause the video and have a try.

Well done, fantastic effort.

Let's take a look together.

In the first sentence we've got the food.

It says the children made the food.

So that is the object of the verb made.

And then it says the adults ate it.

So that's the object of the verb ate.

In B, we've got a garden full of vegetables tempted.

Well, a garden full of vegetables is doing that verb tempted, so it must be a subject.

And C, we've got, you can have, so you is doing that verb can have.

And then we've got, you can eat nothing.

So that's having the verb eat done to it.

So nothing is an object.

In D, we've got a ball hit me.

Well, we are having hit done to me, so that's an object.

And then I got a bruise.

I is doing that verb got, so it's a subject.

In E, they blamed us.

They are doing that verb blamed, so that's the subject.

And it says it was their fault.

So it says it was.

So it is doing was.

And if you do something that is the verb.

Really well done if you identified all of those correctly, fantastic job.

So we've talked now about subject and object.

Let's move on to talking about active and passive voice.

So normally as we've seen, a sentence has the subject doing the verb to an object or just the subject doing a verb.

So if you look at this example, we've got my explanation impressed Mr. Martinez.

Here we've got the subject, my explanation, doing the verb, impressed to the object, Mr. Martinis.

When the subject does the verb to the object, we call this the active voice, but sometimes we can make what would normally be the object of the sentence, the subject of the sentence.

And now we'll see that the verb is being done to the subject.

So they're gonna take that object, Mr. Martinez, and make it the subject of the sentence.

Mr. Martinez was impressed by an explanation.

So now we've got the subject, Mr. Martinez, having the verb was impressed, done to him.

And when the object becomes a subject like this, we call it the passive voice.

So here are two sentences in the active voice.

The scientists discovered a cure, and the committee is making the decision.

I bet you can spot the object of these sentences.

You're right, it's a cure and the decision.

So these are the objects.

So we can now convert these sentences to the passive voice by making these objects, what would normally be the object, the subject.

So I could say a cure was discovered by the scientists.

The decision is being made by the committee.

Look how the old object has become the subject.

So the normal object has become the subject in the passive voice.

We can see those here.

We've got an auxiliary verb as well (indistinct) was and is being.

And we've got a main verb in the past tense form now, discovered and made.

And look, there's a difference there.

Before we had the committee is making, and that sounds like the progressive tense, doesn't it? But now we've got the decision is being made.

So we've got that auxiliary verb based on to be, and a past tense form now of that main verb to make.

And now the old subject, the scientists and the committee is often, but always in a preposition phrase using by, by the scientists and by the committee.

So you've got lots of clues here towards the passive voice.

We have the old object becoming the subject.

We have those auxiliary verbs, the past tense form of the main verb, and sometimes a preposition phrase at the end, starting with by.

So which of these sentences are written in the passive voice? Pause the video and use those clues to help you work it out.

Have a go.

Well done, great effort.

So in A, we would see the restaurant opened its doors is an active voice sentence.

So no, it's not the passive.

The restaurant is doing that verb to the object, its doors.

In B, we do have a passive voice.

But you can see we've got that auxiliary verb was, a past tense form of the verb attacked and a preposition phrase, by the enemy.

But the biggest clue is that this is a passive voice version of an active voice sentence.

We would normally say the enemy attacked the soldier.

We've taken the object, the soldier, and made it the subject.

C is also the passive voice.

Normally we'd say, my ideas persuaded Mr. Martinez.

We've taken Mr. Martinez the object and made in the subject.

Mr. Martinez was persuaded by my ideas.

And we can see that auxiliary verb was, that past tense verb, persuaded, and that preposition phrase, by my ideas.

So all good clues towards the passive voice.

And D, it's the active voice, not the passive.

We all are, as the subject, doing the verb, chopped, to the object, the vegetables.

That's normally how we would write it.

Well done if you spotted those two passive voice sentences using all those clues we've learned.

Let's try another one.

Let's see if we can convert now from the active voice to the passive voice.

Remember, to do that, identify the object and make it the subject.

So you've got four sentences.

Can you rewrite each one, which is in the active voice now, in the passive voice instead.

Pause the video and have a try.

Great work, let's take a look together.

So A says, Ms. O'Neil is taking the photos.

So we're gonna take that object, the photos and make it the subject.

The photos are being taken by Ms. O'Neil.

B says our school hen laid the eggs.

So we're gonna take that object, the eggs and make it the subject.

The eggs were laid by our school hen.

In C, we've got the church warden will ring the bells.

So we've got the bells as the object, but it says will ring, which is in the future.

So we have to say the bells will be rung by the church warden.

And indeed we've said some of the children were celebrating Diwali.

Diwali is the object.

Let's make it the subject.

Diwali was being celebrated by some of the children.

And you have noticed there we've had to be careful with the tense we use in our passive voice verbs to make sure we keep it in the same tense as we had in the active voice.

Really well done if you managed to make those conversions correctly, good job.

Now, we don't always see by in the passive voice in that preposition phrase at the end.

For instance, here's an active voice sentence.

The lab discovered a cure.

A cure is the object.

If we made it a passive voice sentence, we could say a cure was discovered by the lab, but we might just say a cure was discovered.

So we haven't had by the lab at the end there.

We don't necessarily have to have that at the end.

Here's another example.

They found rats at the restaurant.

In the passive voice, we'd probably say, rats were found at the restaurant.

We wouldn't say rats were found by them at the restaurant usually.

So we've removed that preposition phrase by them when we've made the passive voice sentence here.

So let's test that.

Which of these sentences are in the passive voice? I notice none of them have a proposition phrase using by.

So you're gonna have to think carefully, which ones are passive voice versions of an active voice sentence that might have contained someone doing the action.

Pause the video and have a careful think.

Well done, great thinking.

You might have spotted that A, yes, it is in the passive voice.

Now we might normally say something like, I dropped the coin.

That would be the active voice.

Now we flipped it and we've made it the passive voice.

The coin was dropped, but I haven't said the coin was dropped by me.

I've removed that little preposition phrase, by me.

It's still the passive voice though, because it's still the passive version of that active sentence, I dropped the coin or someone dropped the coin.

B and C are in the active voice.

She dropped the coin, we made a mistake.

But D is in the passive voice.

And look how we've done something different here.

In C, we said we made a mistake.

So the passive version of that active sentence would be a mistake was made by us.

But we've removed that preposition phrase, by us, and said, a mistake was made.

But that's still the passive voice because it's the passive version of that active sentence, we made a mistake.

Really well done if you notice those.

So let's have a think carefully about what the passive voice does to our meaning.

We've got two sentences here.

The children broke the window and the window was broken.

How does using the passive voice in that second sentence change the meaning or the emphasis of our sentence? Does it emphasise who did the action, A? Does it emphasise what happened without mentioning who did it, B? Or does it emphasise that this happened in the past, C? Pause the video and decides which makes sense.

Well done, good job.

You're right, it's B.

Here, when we say the window was broken, we haven't said who broke it.

So emphasises what happened, the fact that the window was broken, without mentioning who did it, the children.

So you can see how the passive voice here removes their responsibility from the sentence.

So the active voice emphasises that they did it.

The passive voice emphasises that it was broken without saying that they did it.

Really good job if you worked that one out.

Now we can easily convert back from the passive voice to the active voice.

Let me show you how.

If we've got this passive voice sentence, it says, our neighbour is being terrorised by a vicious fox.

So in that preposition phrase at the end of the passive voice sentence, we find what would be the subject of the active voice sentence, a vicious fox.

So we can make that the subject again, we can say a vicious fox is terrorising our neighbour.

So we looked in that preposition phrase at the end of the passive sentence for what would be the subject in the active sentence.

So let's see if you can do the same thing.

Can you change each passive voice sentence here to the active voice? Looking in that preposition phrase for what would be the subject of the active voice sentence.

pause the video and have a try.

Well done, great job.

So for the first one, we would take a stern security guard and make it the subject again, A stern security guard is monitoring the queue.

For B, we're gonna look in that preposition phrase by lightning.

So that's gonna become the subject again.

And we'd say lightning struck the local synagogue.

Brilliant work, so let's do our final task for this lesson.

I've got some sentences here and some are in the passive voice and some are in the active voice.

I want you to take each sentence and convert it to the opposite voice.

So if it's passive, make it active.

If it's active, make it passive.

And you may not need to use by in all your passive sentences.

You might notice that using by doesn't quite sound right.

So you can remove that preposition phrase and that will emphasise the action being done and not who did it.

So pause the video and see if you can convert each of these to the opposite voice.

Have a go.

Brilliant effort, well done.

Let's take a look.

In A, we'd have written the rules were made by the teachers.

That's now the passive voice.

For B, we'd say the storm damaged our school, that's now active.

For C, we'd say at long last, a decision was made, that's passive.

For D, we'd say, Jacob suggested this to me, that's active.

For E, we'd say the army rebuilt the town, that's active voice.

And the F, we'd say, unfortunately, the slide was broken.

That's the passive voice now.

Now we wouldn't have said a decision was made by them.

So we removed that preposition phrase by them, and we've kept it in the passive voice there.

For the F, we did the same thing.

We wouldn't say the slide was broken by us.

So you remove that preposition phrase, by us, in the passive voice.

Brilliant job, if you've managed to make those conversions.

Really good work.

So let's summarise our learning in this session.

We've said that the active voice is the normal way of writing and saying sentences.

And in the active voice sentences contain a subject that does a verb.

And sometimes that verb is done to an object.

In the passive voice, the normal object becomes the subject and the verb is now done to that subject.

And we often use the passive voice to emphasise what has been done rather than who did it, as we saw in our other sentences.

Really good thinking in this lesson.

We've dealt with some complicated ideas and we've done a fantastic job.

Great work with your conversion between active and passive voice as well.

Really good work and I hope to see you again in a future lesson, goodbye.