[Grammar] usage of the word 'blow'

[Heidi]

Dear friends,

A: Many countries around the world host hot air balloon festivals.
B: They would do that in my town where I grew up, because we had a big area that was flat, so (1)it was a lot of room for the balloons to get (2)blowing up and go up.

(1) Is it better to say 'there was a lot of room...'?
(2) Can we say '...for the balloons to get blown up and go up'?
(3) Which one of the following two sentences is the usual way to use the word 'blow'? (a)My hat blew away. (b)My hat was blown away.

Thank you!

 

[Pedroski]

They would do that in my town, where I grew up, because we had a (big flat) area (that was flat), so (1)there was a lot of room for the balloons to be(2)blown up/inflated and to launch/start.
Use either of 'big flat area' or 'big area that was flat'

Lots of sports have special words to refer to things in that particular sport. It may be that hot-air ballooning has special terms to describe the actions to which you are referring. But I don't know that, you would need to ask someone who participates regularly.

 

[Barb_D]

The balloons are, I believe, inflated.

 

[Heidi]

Which one of the following two sentences is the usual way to use the word 'blow'? (a)My hat blew away. (b)My hat was blown away.

Thank you!

 

[5jj]

Both work.

The grammatical subject of a number of verbs used intransitively can be the object of that same verb used transitively. The transitive construction can be active or passive:

The ball dropped. – I dropped the ball – The ball was dropped.
My hat blew away. – The wind blew my hat away. – My hat was blown away

 

[Heidi]

Both work.

The grammatical subject of a number of verbs used intransitively can be the object of that same verb used transitively. The transitive construction can be active or passive:

The ball dropped. – I dropped the ball – The ball was dropped.
My hat blew away. – The wind blew my hat away. – My hat was blown away

Woooow! Thank you, fivejedjon. The grammar seems pretty complicated, but the examples are much easier to understand.

Still, I have a question. I looked it up in my dictionary, for the word 'blow', in those example sentences, none of them uses the passive structure.
So, maybe 'my hat blew away' and 'the wind blew my hat away' are more common to say than 'my hat was blown away' in everyday life?

 

[Johnson_F]

Active structures are far more common than passive for most people.