The thief was caught by the police near the city gallery.

[rub mizrachi]

Hello,
I have a question about word order in passive voice transformations. In a school test, a student wrote:
The thief was caught by the police near the city gallery.
All the material is reviewed by the students before the exam.
The teacher corrected these, indicating that the "by + agent" phrase should be moved to the very end of the sentence (after near the city gallery and before the exam).
Is there a strict rule in English grammar regarding this? Who is correct here, the student or the teacher?
Thank you.

 

[5jj]

Both sentences are possible.

 

[probus]

There is no such rule.

 

[jutfrank]

When ordering elements in a sentence, different positions yield slightly different focuses, so both positions are possible depending on what you're focusing on, but all other things being equal, the 'by'-agent will naturally want to go directly after its verb, not at the end as your teacher says.

 

[Annabel Lee]

. . . both positions are possible depending on what you're focusing on . . . .

Is there a strict rule in English grammar regarding this?

With the space and time adverbials, a third position is possible (clause-initial), which, interestingly, is impossible for the agentive by-phrase adverbials. There is, I see, a strict rule about this, though I can't say I've ever read or thought about it before.

Near the city gallery, the thief was caught by the police.​

By the police, the thief was caught near the city gallery.​

​

Before the exam, all the material is reviewed by the students.​

By the students, all the material is reviewed before the exam.​

 

[emsr2d2]

Was the teacher's point that it could be misunderstood as "The thief was caught. By whom? By the police [who were] near the art gallery"? That's the only reason I can think of that would make the teacher suggest that the other word order would be clearer. Even if that's the case, it's definitely not a rule you must follow.