[Grammar] I was passed the salt by him.

[wotcha]

I teach Passive Voice nowadays and have some questions about the possibility

of passive voices of certain verbs such as pass, read, write, send, bring and ets.

- Oh yes, every grammar book has different rules and again, I trust you usingenglish

teachers. :-D



Please check the below sentences if they are grammatical or not.

1. He passed me the salt -> I was passed the salt by him.

2. I read her a book -> She was read a book by me.

3. I brought Tom some water. -> Tom was brought some water by me.

4. She wrote me a letter. -> I was written a letter by her.

5. My mom sent me an email -> I was sent an email by my mom.



Cheers!

 

[Rover_KE]

Re: I was passed a salt by him.

I hope you (and your students) are aware that this kind of passive sentence is rarely used in real life, sounds completely unnatural, and only exists as an exercise to torment students with when they'd be better off learning something more useful.

1, 2 and 3 are correct. 4 is wrong and 5 is questionable.

You could amend your title.

Now I've spent enough time on this already.

Rover

 

[SoothingDave]

Re: I was passed a salt by him.

#1 should be "he passed me the salt."

 

[Barb_D]

Re: I was passed a salt by him.

These excercises are SO pointless, as Rover said.
However, the direct object should be the subject of the sentence in the passive. A book was read to them. An email was sent to me. Generally, don't include the agent if it's a pronoun, so no "by me" or "by her."

 

[wotcha]

Re: I was passed a salt by him.

I always appreciate your advice Barb.

The reason I post this question is that some of grammar books say

it is ungrammatical to make a passive sentence transforming an indirect object into a subject,

That is, you can't say "I was passed the salt" or "I was read a book".

And I've always been doubt about it.


Now I have a confidence to say to my students that you can say

"I was passed the salt" or "I was read the book"

 

[Barb_D]

Re: I was passed a salt by him.

The salt, the book, and the e-mail are the direct objects, while "me" "her" "Tom" and "me" are the indirect objects.

"Pure" passive transformation would have salt, book, water, letter, and e-mail as the subjects.

You should NOT have the confidence to say "I was read the book" is an appropriate trasnformation to the passive.

 

[Tdol]

Re: I was passed a salt by him.

The reason I post this question is that some of grammar books say

it is ungrammatical to make a passive sentence transforming an indirect object into a subject,

You can make the indirect object into the subject. Your I was written example doesn't work very well, but you could say I was sent a letter.

"I was passed the salt"

This is a possible sentence, but is it a very likely sentence? The problem with focusing on passive conversions is that it doesn't place much emphasis on the reasons for using the passive and suggests that it is little more than an alternative way of saying something.