[General] My family

[suniljain]

My family, which was consisted of five people, became only two.

Can we use "was" before consisted? I understand "consisted" is transitive verb?

 

[Matthew Wai]

I think we cannot use 'was consisted of'.

'My family consisted of five people.'
'My family was composed of five people.'

 

[suniljain]

I think we cannot use 'was consisted of'.

'My family consisted of five people.'
'My family was composed of five people.'

Any rule why can't we use "was"?

 

[Raymott]

What do think it would mean?
The rule is "Don't arbitrarily put 'was' in a sentence unless you know why you want to put it there."

 

[GoesStation]

Consisted can't be used as an adjective, so it can't follow any conjugation of to be.

 

[Matthew Wai]

I think 'made up' is not an adjective in 'My family was made up of five people'.

 

[MikeNewYork]

My family, which was consisted of five people, became only two.

Can we use "was" before consisted? I understand "consisted" is transitive verb?

"Consist" is an intransitive verb.

 

[Matthew Wai]

The OP might have been confused by the following, which has confused me.

'consist of [TRANSITIVE]'── quoted from http://www.macmillandictionary.com/dictionary/british/consist

 

[MikeNewYork]

That is very misleading. It adds a preposition to the verb to make a transitive phrasal verb.