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Active Sentences With Two Objects in Passive

When there are two objects in an active sentence, there are two possible active sentences and two possible passive sentences.

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1K views

Active Sentences With Two Objects in Passive

When there are two objects in an active sentence, there are two possible active sentences and two possible passive sentences.

Uploaded by

Ngô Ngọc
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Active sentences with two objects in passive

When there are two objects in an active sentence, there are two possible active sentences and two
possible passive sentences.
possibility 1: The professor explained the students the exercise.
possibility 2: The professor explained the exercise to the students.
There are two objects in each of the following sentences:
object 1 = indirect object: the students
object 2 = direct object: the exercise
An indirect object is very often a person, a direct object a thing. When a direct object is followed
by an indirect one, we put to in front of the indirect object.

subject
The professor

active sentence - possibility 1


verb
indirect object
explained
the students

direct object
the exercise.

active sentence - possibility 2


subject
The professor

Each of the objects (direct and indirect) can be the subject in the passive sentence.

subject
The students

passive sentence - possibility 1


verb
object
were explained
the exercise.

(by-agent)
(by the professor).

subject
The exercise

passive sentence - possibility 2


verb
object
was explained
to the students

(by-agent)
(by the professor).

Possibility 1 is sometimes called Personal passive.

Verbs with prepositions in passive


When we put an active sentence, where a preposition follows after the verb (e.g. break into, look
after), into passive - the preposition remains immediately after the verb.
Active sentence

Passive sentence

Someone broke into the pet shop.

The pet shop was broken into.

1) Personal Passive
When we put an object of an active sentence into passive, it becomes subject of the passive
sentence.
Active voice:
The professor explained the students the exercise.
The professor explained the exercise to the students.
Passive voice:
The students were explained the exercise.
The exercise was explained to the students.
We sometimes use a pronoun for "the students" or "the exercise" in its subject form (here:
they/it).
Passive voice:
They were explained the exercise.
It was explained to the students.
We very often leave out the by-agent in the passive sentence (here: by the professor).

2) Impersonal Passive - It is said ...


The phrase It is said ... is an impersonal passive construction. We often use it in news.
Passive sentence - version 1:
It is said that children are afraid of ghosts.
Passive sentence - version 2:
Children are said to be afraid of ghosts.
The correct active sentence would be:
Active sentence: People say that children are afraid of ghosts.
Here you will find some examples of how to form the passive depending on the tense.
tense
Simple Present
Simple Past
Present Perfect

active
Peter builds a house.
Peter built a house.
Peter has built a house.

passive
A house is built by Peter.
A house was built by Peter.
A house has been built by Peter.

Past Perfect
will-future
going to-future

Peter had built a house.


Peter will build a house.
Peter is going to build a house
in summer.

A house had been built by Peter.


A house will be built by Peter.
A house is going to be built in summer by
Peter.

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