She was brought - personal passive

Buddy42

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Jul 16, 2014
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Student or Learner
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German
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Germany
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Hello,

Talking about the personal passive: There are some verbs that cannot be used to form sentences in the personal passive voice, for instance "explain".

But what about the verb "bring"? Let's take the sentence: The librarian brought her a cup of tea.
The "normal" passive would be "A cup of tea was brought to her (by the librarian)."

Is it also technically possible / idiomatic to say: She was brought a cup of tea? Implying, that it was a cup of tea and not a book, as one would expect a librarian to bring.
 

emsr2d2

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Jul 28, 2009
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British English
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UK
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Hello.

Talking about the personal passive, there are some verbs that cannot be used to form sentences in the personal passive voice; for instance, "explain".

But However, what about the verb "bring"? Let's take the sentence no colon here "The librarian brought her a cup of tea".
The "normal" passive would be "A cup of tea was brought to her (by the librarian)."

Is it also technically possible/idiomatic to say no colon here "She was brought a cup of tea" no full stop here implying no comma here that it was a cup of tea and not a book, as one would expect a librarian to bring?
Note my corrections above.

You can use "She was brought a cup of tea" in any context that involves someone bringing someone female a cup of tea. I don't know why you think it implies some sort of surprise that a librarian brought a cup of tea instead of a book. If you want to express that surprise, you'll have to make it much clearer.
 

Buddy42

Junior Member
Joined
Jul 16, 2014
Member Type
Student or Learner
Native Language
German
Home Country
Germany
Current Location
Germany
Thank you, that helps a lot! I really do appreciate your willingness to correct my language errors.

I assumed that the verb "bring" is one of those verbs that are not normally used in the personal passive voice, according to a list my teacher gave me a few years ago. As such, I thought I might need a good reason to use it that way, anyways.
 
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