Survive in active and passive voice

Status
Not open for further replies.

Freeguy

Senior Member
Joined
Oct 4, 2013
Member Type
English Teacher
Native Language
Persian
Home Country
Iran
Current Location
Iran
Hey
I want to know when we can use survive in a passive voice and when we don't have this permission?
In the sixth usage of this verb in Longman dictionary, I saw that is has been used in a passive voice : Ex: He is survived by his wife Sue.
Is it possible to use this verb in passive voice in its other definitions/usages?

Thanks
 
I can't think of one but if you'd like to construct some sample sentences, we'll tell you if they work or not.
 
He survived by his wife Sue.

OR

He is survived by his wife Sue.
 
He survived by his wife Sue.

OR

He is survived by his wife Sue.
The first is neither passive nor correct. The second is passive and correct.
 
He survived by his wife Sue.

OR

He is survived by his wife Sue.

When I suggested that you construct some sentences yourself, I didn't expect you to copy the example sentence from the Longman dictionary, write a variant of it and then ask which one is correct. In 99.9% of cases, you can assume that the example sentence in a dictionary is correct.
 
Is it possible to use this verb in passive voice in its other definitions/usages?

You can't put She survived the earthquake into the passive.
 
And in the obituary sense of "is survived by" is rarely used in the active. You would rarely read "His wife Sue survives him."
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Ask a Teacher

If you have a question about the English language and would like to ask one of our many English teachers and language experts, please click the button below to let us know:

(Requires Registration)
Back
Top