[Grammar] The Passive Voice

[crazyaboutenglish]

Hi, can anyone tell me if these passive sentences are correct?

Active: My father gets a good salary.
Passive: A good salary is got by my father.

Active: Mr. Thomson has the garden in town.
Passive: The garden in town is had by Mr. Thomson.

Thank you!

 

[emsr2d2]

Hi, can anyone tell me if these passive sentences are correct?

Active: My father gets a good salary.
Passive: A good salary is got by my father.

Active: Mr. Thomson has the garden in town.
Passive: The garden in town is had by Mr. Thomson.

Thank you!

This is one of those exercises which is absolutely pointless. As far as the order of words and the passive construction is concerned, they're both correct but there would be absolutely no reason to use the passive in either of those situations. If we absolutely had to use the passive (and I really cannot think of ANY situation where I would), then we would say:

A good salary is earnt by my father. (Note: earnt in BrE, earned in AmE)
The garden in town is owned by Mr Thomson.

 

[SoothingDave]

I never knew "earnt" was a word.

 

[5jj]

I never knew "earnt" was a word.

'Earnt', learnt', 'spelt', etc are fine in BrE.

 

[SoothingDave]

I know you use different forms. I was saying that I'd come across "burnt" and "spelt" and "learnt" before. But not "earnt."

 

[Rover_KE]

It's becoming so common in popular usage that more dictionaries than these three are soon going to have to acknowledge it.

Those of us who still find it irritating are just going to have to suck it up.

Rover

 

[bhaisahab]

I always use "earned".

 

[SoothingDave]

It's becoming so common in popular usage that more dictionaries than these three are soon going to have to acknowledge it.

Those of us who still find it irritating are just going to have to suck it up.

Rover

So, it's a not an old word?

 

[Rover_KE]

I've only become aware of its use in the last two or three years.

Rover

 

[crazyaboutenglish]

Thank you!

 

[emsr2d2]

I've only become aware of its use in the last two or three years.

Rover

Really? Earnt, learnt, spelt were all taught to me as the correct past tense as a child in the early 1970s.

 

[birdeen's call]

This is the first time I see this form too. I've done some searching. Some dictionaries that have "burnt" and "learnt" (including the OED) don't have "earnt", and those which do call it rare. It has 8 hits in BNC, 8 in COHA and none in COCA. Some say it's just incorrect. Yet Google has a good 1,360,000 hits, only some of which are spelling advice.

 

[emsr2d2]

What can I say? I'm a rare old bird!