"He wasn't ever stuck by"

[GoodbyeGorgeousGeorgia]

Is it correct to write "He wasn't ever stuck by" if I mean "No one ever supported him"? I'd like to use more phrasal verbs to improve my lexicon, so I'm doing some practice but I'm not so good :-(

 

[5jj]

That one doesn't work.

Welcome to the forum, GGG. :hi:

 

[GoodbyeGorgeousGeorgia]

So, I think it's because of the by. I mean, I can say that "someone is stuck", but not "someone is stuck by". Can't this phrasal verb (that I've found on this site) be passive?

 

[SoothingDave]

No passive. You can stick by someone, but you can't say someone was stuck by.

 

[GoodbyeGorgeousGeorgia]

Oh, I got it. It's an intransitive verb so it doesn't have a passive form, right? What a stupid mistake...

 

[billmcd]

So, I think it's because of the by. I mean, I can say that "someone is stuck", but not "someone is stuck by". Can't this phrasal verb (that I've found on this site) be passive?

The "stuck" in "someone is stuck" is different from the "stuck" in "No one ever stuck by him". In the first it means the person cannot move forward/ahead, either literally or figuratively. The second use means that no one ever supported him.

 

[Raymott]

Is it correct to write "He wasn't ever stuck by" if I mean "No one ever supported him"? I'd like to use more phrasal verbs to improve my lexicon, so I'm doing some practice but I'm not so good :-(

Then why not simply say, "No one ever stuck by him"?

 

[probus]

@Soothingdave: But could they say "He wasn't never stuck by, by his kin"?

 

[Rover_KE]

No, they can't. Why are you so determined to make an ugly passive sentence out of a perfectly natural active one?

 

[probus]

No, they can't. Why are you so determined to make an ugly passive sentence out of a perfectly natural active one?

I am not determined to do so. I agree with what you and 5jj said. I am just curious about a regional dialect of AmE that SoothingDave knows better than I.

 

[SoothingDave]

@Soothingdave: But could they say "He wasn't never stuck by, by his kin"?

It sounds odd to me; and the double negative doesn't help.

 

[GoodbyeGorgeousGeorgia]

I wanted to make a passive form because I thought it would have fitted better in the sentence I was working on, but of course I could not do it.

 

[konungursvia]

It does sound like something out of Mark Twain, though.

 

[probus]

It does sound like something out of Mark Twain, though.

Yes, amigo, that's exactly what I was asking about. To me "He was never stuck by" is a valid sentence, albeit old-fashioned. I wondered to what extent the usage survives. Speakers of southern AmE must know best.