[Grammar] Conversion of active voice into passive voice

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shani16

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"He is playing with good friends"

This sentence does not have an object, it has a prepositional phrase (with good friends). Can it be converted into passive voice??

Thanks!
 

Rover_KE

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Welcome to the forum.

"He is playing with good friends". End every sentence with the appropriate punctuation mark.

This sentence does not have an object; it has a prepositional phrase (with good friends). Can it be converted into the passive voice?

[STRIKE]Thanks![/STRIKE] Unnecessary. Just click 'Thank' when you get a useful reply.

Students are often asked to do this purely as a theoretical exercise, so you would have to say 'Good friends are being played with by him'. However, no native speaker would ever use that construction.
 

shani16

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I have been taught that a sentence having no object can not be converted into the passive voice, then how is it possible to convert to to passive voice as:
'Good friends are being played with by him' ?
 

Rover_KE

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I've just demonstrated that it is possible, but it's implausible, unnatural, ugly, non-colloqial, artificial and unrealistic.

Non-native English teachers often give their students such pointless exercises as this, expecting the construction I concocted.
 
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