3. Passive

PASSIVE (3)

1.     Some verbs can have two objects. For example offer:

They didn’t offer Ann the job. (the two objects are Ann and the job)

So it is possible to make two different passive sentences:

-         Ann wasn’t offered the job.

-         The job wasn’t offered to Ann.

It is more usual for the passive sentence to begin with the person.

Other verbs like offer which can have two objects are: ask, tell, give, send, show, teach, pay.

Here are some examples of passive sentences with these verbs:

-         I was given two hours to make my decision. (= they gave me two hours)

-         The men were paid £800 to do the job. (= someone paid the men £800)

-         Have you been shown the new machine? (= has anyone shown you the new machine?)

2.     Born: remember that be born is a passive verb and is usually past:      

-         Where were you born? (not ‘are you born’) - past simple   

-         I was born in Chicago. (not ‘I am born’) - past simple

-         How many babies are born in this hospital every day? – present simple

3.     The passive –ing form is being done/being cleaned etc.:

Active: I don’t like people telling me what to do.

Passive: I don’t like being told what to do.

-         I remember being given a toy drum on my fifth birthday. (= I remember someone giving me…)

-         Hurry up! You know Mr. Miller hates being kept waiting. (= he hates people keeping him waiting)

-         He climbed over the wall without being seen. (= without anyone seeing him)

4.     Sometimes you can use get instead of be in the passive:

-         There was a fight at the party but nobody got hurt. (= nobody was hurt)

-         Did Ann get offered the job? (= was Ann offered the job?)

You can use get in the passive to say that something happens to someone or something. Often the action is not planned; it happens by chance:

-         The dog got run over by a car. (= the dog was run over)

In other types of situation get is not usually possible:

George is like by everyone. (not ‘gets liked’)

Get is used mainly in informal spoken English. You can use be in all situations.