Hey, what's up? What's going on? Welcome to English with Dane, a podcast designed to improve your English. As always, I'm your host Dane, and you can find me on Instagram at Englishwith Dane. If you want a free full transcript of this and all future episodes, go to EnglishwithDane.com slash transcripts and sign up to the listener list. You'll receive transcripts for each episode in your inbox as soon as they come out. The link is in the description of the video.
Also, don't forget to subscribe to the channel and hit the like button if you enjoy the video. Today's episode is all about the passive voice. A lot of you have asked me to do an episode about this because it can be a little tricky. So this episode will hopefully resolve all of your issues, and if you still have questions after this explanation, ask me in the comment section below. That said, let's start the show. You are listening to episode 96 of English with Dane. Hit it.
Let's say that one more time. We use the passive voice when we want to talk about or show interest in the person or object that experiences an action instead of the person or object that performs the action. A quick, easy example. James kicked the ball. The person who performed the action is James, right? James kicked the ball. But we want to talk about the ball, so the object that experienced the action. So we say, the ball was kicked by James. Remember to use by, okay?
The company was founded by whoever. So when should we use quando deberíamos usar the passive voice? We normally use the passive voice in a few different situations or circumstances. I won't cover all of them because it'll take too long, so let's take a look at some of the most common ones. First, when we want to change the focus of the sentence. An example. The Colosseum was built in the Colosseum Built. The Colosseum was built from 70 to 80 AD.
Okay, that sounds better than from 70 to 80 AD they built the Colosseum. That sounds weird. The city was invaded in 1788. The iPhone was released in 2007. Second, the person or object who causes the action is unimportant, obvious, or unknown. We don't know who stole it, we just know that it was stolen. They were arrested on Tuesday. In this case, it's obvious that they were arrested by the police. It's less common to say the police arrested them on Tuesday. It's obvious who it was.
Nobody hears about someone being arrested and asks, oh, by who? 3. When we want to be vague or unclear about who is responsible. Mistakes were made, for example. That sounds better than we made mistakes or they made mistakes. The project was finished late sounds better than we finished the project late. Do you see what I mean? Alright, for now let's focus on those three and let's practice a little bit. What we'll do is this.
I'll say an active sentence and then give you a second to change it to a passive sentence in your head or out loud if you want. I just won't talk for a sec, and then I'll say the answer. Ready? Alright, let's do it. We'll start easy and work our way up. Let's go. Mark Zuckerberg founded Facebook in 2004. Facebook was founded by Mark Zuckerberg in 2004, or was founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg. The important part is Facebook was founded. Next one. A drunk man attacked a taxi driver on Thursday.
A taxi driver was attacked by a drunk man on Thursday. Next one. Someone stole Maria's bike. Maria's bike was stolen. All right, more. Alvaro painted the entire house. The entire house was painted by Alvaro. The presidents are signing the agreement. The agreement is being signed by the presidents. A quick note, the key with the passive voice is not to change the time of the action. That last example, the presidents are signing the agreement. It's happening as I'm talking at the same time.
So when we change it to the passive voice, we have to respect that. The agreement is being signed, está siendo firmado by the presidents. Next one. The whole class witnessed the event. The event was witnessed by the whole class. Please don't say event. It's event. Event. The event was witnessed by the whole class. Alright, here are some harder ones. Nobody has lived in the house since 2003. The house hasn't been lived in since 2003. Next, nobody has seen them since the incident.
Nobody has seen them since the incident. Last one, the police are arresting the thieves, Los ladrones, as we speak. The police are arresting the thieves as we speak. The thieves are being arrested as we speak. As we speak is a good little phrase to remember, by the way. Something that is happening as we speak is happening right now at this exact moment. Alright, good job. I hope you got a few right, and if you didn't, don't stress, just listen again and practice, and you'll get it in no time.
That's it for this episode of English with Dane about the passive voice. I hope you enjoyed it. I hope it helped. And don't forget to hit the like button and subscribe if you're watching this on YouTube. This is the first video episode ever. So let me know what you think of the new format. And if you have any questions or suggestions, let me know. If you want transcripts, Englishwith Dane dot com slash transcript, the link is in the description. All right, talk soon. Bye bye.