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Hi, I’m Olivier.
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Welcome to Oxford Online English!
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In this lesson, you can learn about the passive
voice in English.
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You can see what it is, how to form it, and
how to use it.
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Before we start, don’t forget to check out
our website: Oxford Online English dot com.
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You can find many other free English lessons. You can
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also take online classes with one of our
qualified teachers.
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But now, let’s start with the basics.
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What is the passive voice?
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Look at these sentences: ‘This dish is made
with eggs and cheese.’
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‘The car was badly damaged in the accident.’
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‘Their house looks like it hasn’t been
cleaned for months.’
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All of these examples use the passive voice.
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Can you see how and why?
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Let’s look.
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In a regular, active sentence, you start with
a subject, then you add a verb, which often
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has an object.
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For example: ‘A dog bit me when I was five.’
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Can you find the subject, verb and object
in this sentence?
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To make the sentence passive, the subject
and object change places: ‘I was bitten
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by a dog when I was five.’
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When you make a sentence passive, you only
change the subject, verb and object.
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Everything else stays the same.
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In this example, ‘when I was five’ isn’t
part of the subject-verb-object structure,
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so it’s the same whether the sentence is
active or passive.
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Next, let’s see how to form the passive
voice.
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Look at three sentences from the start of
the lesson again.
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They look different, but they all contain
the passive.
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What do the sentences have in common?
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All three sentences contain the verb ‘be’
and a past participle—also called the 3rd
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form.
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This is what you need to form passive sentences.
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Let’s do some practice!
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Can you add the missing verbs to these three
sentences?
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If you’re not sure, remember the rule from
before: you need ‘be’ plus a past participle.
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Here, you need to put the verbs into the past
participle form.
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Pause the video and think about your answers.
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Ready?
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Here are the full sentences.
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Here’s a question: these sentences contain
the verb ‘be’, but it’s different in
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each sentence.
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Do you know why?
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Let’s look together!
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What do you do if you want to make a passive
sentence past, or future, or present perfect?
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What changes?
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Look at our last three examples again.
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Remember that the passive is made of two parts:
‘be’ plus a past participle.
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What changes, and what stays the same?
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The answer: you can change the verb ‘be’
to use different tenses and times.
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The past participle *never changes.* Whether
you’re talking about the past, the present,
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or the future, the past participle stays the
same.
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Let’s see how this works:
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Past: ‘The letters were sent to all our
customers last week.’
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Present: ‘The letters are sent to all our
customers every week.’
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Present perfect: ‘The letters have been
sent to all our customers this week.’
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Future with ‘will’: ‘The letters will
be sent to all our customers next week.’
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Of course, there are other possible forms,
but the idea is the same.
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There are also passive infinitives with ‘to’:
‘The letters need to be sent to all our
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customers.’
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And, there are passive –ing forms: ‘Many
customers like being sent regular newsletters.’
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You can see the same pattern every time: ‘be’
plus a past participle, and the verb ‘be’
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can change to show different times or forms.
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The past participle never changes, in any
form of the passive!
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Let’s do a quick test.
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Look at a sentence: ‘This problem (be) solved
by our IT team.’
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Your job is to write five different versions
of this sentence.
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One: write the sentence in the present simple.
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Two: make it present continuous
Three: make it past simple.
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Four: make it present perfect.
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Five: make it future with ‘going to’.
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Pause the video, and write your sentences.
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You’ll see the answers in a few seconds.
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Ready?
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Here are the answers.
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How did you do?
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Could you write the five sentences correctly?
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If you could, then well done!
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If not, then you can review this section and
try to work out why you made mistakes.
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OK, now you know the most important points
about how the passive is formed, but why do
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you use the passive?
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There are three common reasons to use the
passive voice.
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One: you want to change the emphasis of your
sentence.
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Two: the subject of your sentence is unknown
or unimportant.
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Three: you want to sound more impersonal or
indirect.
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Let’s look at these one by one.
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First, use the passive to change the emphasis
of your sentence.
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Look at two sentences: ‘Leonardo da Vinci
painted the Mona Lisa.’
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‘The Mona Lisa was painted by Leonardo da
Vinci.’
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The first sentence is active, and the second
is passive.
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What’s the difference?
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If you’re not sure, think about this: which
is the most important idea in each sentence?
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In the first sentence, you’re more interested
in Leonardo da Vinci.
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In the second sentence, you’re more interested
in the Mona Lisa.
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In English, putting an idea at the beginning
of a sentence shows that it’s more important.
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You can use the passive to change the emphasis
of a sentence, and show what you think is
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the most important idea.
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Secondly, use the passive when the subject
is unknown or unimportant.
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What does that mean?
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Let’s look: ‘My bike was stolen.’
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‘The kitchen has been cleaned today.’
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‘She was arrested for shoplifting.’
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Why do you think you use the passive in these
three cases?
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In these examples, you either don’t know
or don’t care who did the action.
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My bike was stolen—by whom?
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I don’t know, and it doesn’t matter.
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What matters is the fact that it was stolen.
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I don’t have my bicycle any more.
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The kitchen has been cleaned today—by whom?
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Here, it doesn’t matter.
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You only care about the fact that the kitchen
is now clean.
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She was arrested—by whom?
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By the police, of course!
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You don’t care exactly who arrested her.
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You know that the police arrested her, because
it’s obvious from the context.
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No one else can arrest people.
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In these sentences, you only care about the
action itself.
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You don’t know or care who did it.
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There’s one more common reason to use the
passive: to sound impersonal.
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Here’s a question: what’s the difference
between these two examples?
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‘You need to do this by the end of the week.’
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‘This needs to be done by the end of the
week.’
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If someone says this to you, the basic meaning
is the same.
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So what’s the difference?
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The second sentence, with the passive, is
more indirect and impersonal.
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This is because it avoids the words ‘You
need to…’ which appear in the first sentence.
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Using the passive in this way can help you
to sound more formal and polite.
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Saying: ‘You need to do this by the end
of the week’ is very direct.
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It sounds like an order, which could be rude
in some situations.
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Now you know how to form the passive, and
the most common ways to use it, but there’s
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one more important point.
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Many problems English learners have with the
passive happen because they overuse it.
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Here’s the important point: don’t use
the passive if you don’t have a good reason
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to use it.
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If you use the passive, especially when you’re
writing, think about why you’re using it.
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Do you need to use it to change the emphasis
of your sentence?
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Do you need to sound more formal and impersonal?
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Do you want to focus on the action, instead
of whoever did the action?
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If not, don’t use the passive.
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Using the passive makes your sentences longer
and more complicated.
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This isn’t good unless it’s necessary.
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First, it’s inefficient, because you’ll
need more words to express the same ideas.
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Second, it makes your writing harder to read.
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Let’s do some quick practice.
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You’re going to see five sentences.
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For each one, you should decide if it’s
necessary to use the passive or not.
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Here are the five sentences: ‘We were asked
by our friends to bring a dessert for the
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party.’
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‘The proposed policy is strongly supported
by conservative voters.’
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‘It was decided not to follow the recommendations
outlined in the report.’
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‘A variety of measures could be taken to
diminish the detrimental effects of global
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warming.’
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‘The website will be finished and ready
to launch by the end of the month.’
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What do you think?
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Are these good examples of using the passive,
or not?
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Remember that to use the passive, you need
a good reason.
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If there’s no reason, don’t use it.
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Pause the video if you want more time to look
at these.
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Otherwise, let’s look at the sentences.
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In the first sentence, there’s no good reason
to use the passive.
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Using the passive here only makes the sentence
longer and more inefficient.
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The sentence should be active and direct:
‘Our friends asked us to bring a dessert
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for the party.’
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In the second sentence, you probably shouldn’t
use the passive.
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You could argue that you use the passive here
to emphasise the idea of ‘proposed policy’,
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but the words ‘proposed policy’ are vague,
and if you haven’t defined the idea, then
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why emphasise it?
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Again, this sentence should almost certainly
be active: ‘Conservative voters strongly
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support the proposed policy.’
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In the third sentence, there’s one possible
reason to use the passive: to make the sentence
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more impersonal.
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Perhaps you don’t want to say exactly *who*
decided to do this.
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In this case, using the passive is appropriate.
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The fourth sentence is a good example of passive
misuse.
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The problem is that it’s easy to use the
passive voice to make unclear, empty sentences.
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In this sentence, what exactly is the writer
saying?
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‘A variety of measures’ is so vague that
it could mean anything.
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Making this sentence active won’t solve
the problem; instead, you would need to be
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more specific and explain your ideas more
precisely.
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By the way, this is common in IELTS essays.
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Again, it’s not a language problem; it’s
an ideas problem.
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It’s possible to construct long, complicated
sentences using the passive which don’t
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say anything, but this is bad writing and
it certainly won’t help you in an exam like
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IELTS.
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The fifth sentence is a good example of using
the passive.
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In this case, it’s not important *who* will
finish the website; it’s important that
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this work will be finished by the end of the
month.
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Don’t forget to check out the full version
of this lesson on our website, and try the
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quiz to see how much you’ve understood!
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Thanks for watching!
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See you next time!16936
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