Passive voice

[Anonymous]

When the use of "get" in a passive voice estructure is used :roll:

 

[RonBee]

Question: When is get used in the passive voice?
Answer: I am not certain, but I don't think you can use get in the passive voice. However, if somebody can come up with a sentence in the passive voice with get in it I will be happy to be proven wrong.

 

[Tdol]

I think he means the colloquial or informal use of 'get' to replace the auxilliary very 'be', which is common in BE:

His car got stolen.
The man got hurt in the accident.
The work got done in the end.

Basically, we replace 'be' with 'get' in informal English, especially spoken English. The rest of the sentence stays the same.

'Got' can, just about, be used in the passive, but usually as a phrasal verb:

They got at (teased, treated badly) him.
He was got at.

However, this is about the only example I can think of off the top of my head. ;-)

 

[RonBee]

I can see using got with the passive voice, as in the sentences "The man got hurt in the accident" or "The work got done in the end", but what about get?

:wink:

 

[Tdol]

I get hurt when she speaks to me like that.

??? ;-)

As a main verb, I'm struggling. ;-)

 

[RonBee]

I get hurt when she speaks to me like that.

That seems to do it quite well, and it is probably as close as you can come. Some verbs just don't lend themselves well to the passive voice.

 

[Tdol]

The post gets delivered at around ten o'clock. ???

 

[RonBee]

The post gets delivered at around ten o'clock. ???

That is good, but wouldn't it be more usual to say it is delivered at around ten o'clock?

(It took a while, but somebody proved me wrong. :wink: )