Take someone aback

[mrbin]

Dear teachers
What does " take someone aback" mean? I think it should be used just in passive form is it correct?
Thanks alot.

[BobK]

When someone is 'taken aback' they are surprised (often in a negative way). I wouldn't say the active was wrong, but the passive is certainly more common. In the active, I think people would use some more graphic expression; 'the response really took the wind out of his sails/rocked him back on his heels/knocked the stuffing out of him/made him think twice...'

b

[mrbin]

When someone is 'taken aback' they are surprised (often in a negative way). I wouldn't say the active was wrong, but the passive is certainly more common. In the active, I think people would use some more graphic expression; 'the response really took the wind out of his sails/rocked him back on his heels/knocked the stuffing out of him/made him think twice...'

b

Dear Bobk
You helped me alot
Thanks alot

[JTRiff]

You can't 'take someone aback', it doesn't quite work as active.
He may be taken aback by something... but nobody 'took him aback'.


not a teacher

[BobK]

I've now had a look in the BNC, and found just one use of the active:

1 CS5 W_non_ac_humanities_arts A B C it than many parts of the English countryside. The colonists had enough newspapers to take any visiting Englishman aback, and were developing industries fast enough to disturb the balance

In contrast there are hundreds of instances of 'taken aback'.

Read more here: British National Corpus (BYU-BNC)

So, I reckon it's safe to say that you should avoid the active use.