Grammar for advanced learners Passives (1) - Thấm Tâm Vy

Thẩm Tâm Vy GRAMMAR NOTES FOR ADVANCED LEARNERS

PASSIVES (1) USING PASSIVES WHEN THE ACTIVE VERB HAS TWO OBJECTS

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"Great customer service" Reviewed 6 November 2012 We arrived at the hotel in the early evening and were given our room keys / our room keys were given to us. We were delighted to discover that we had been allocated the best room in the hotel / the best room in the hotel had been allocated to us. A porter carried our cases up for us and demonstrated how to use the air conditioning. We certainly needed it, because it was a hot and humid night. We ate at a very good restaurant that was recommended to us by the hotel receptionist, and went back to the hotel feeling very happy. Unfortunately, the air conditioning proved to be so noisy we couldn't sleep, and when we phoned reception to complain, they explained that there was a fault in the system and an engineer would be called the next day, which wasn't much good to us! However, we were given a large discount to make up for the inconvenience.

Stayed November 2012, travelled on business

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When you use a passive form of a verb with two objects such as send, pay, buy, give, teach and show, either the direct object or the indirect object can become the subject. For example, instead of The firm paid the sales staffa bonus, you can say => Bonus was paid to the sales staff, where the direct object of the active clause (the bonus) is the subject of the passive clause. The indirect object (sales staff) can be mentioned after to or for. Sometimes it is unnecessary to mention the indirect object at all. - A bonus was paid at the end of the year. But you can also say The sales staffwere paid a bonus, where the indirect object of the active clause is the subject of the passive clause. - I’m sure the letter was sent to Laura. - The dog was bought for him as a birthday present. - The children do not speak Gaelic at home, though they are taught it in school. - He was shown a photocopy of the certificate. - I was given this necklace by my grandmother.

Remember! There are some verbs that can have two objects but can only have one passive form. For example, you can say They explained the situation to the manager. However, there is only one possible passive, one that starts with the direct object, The situation was explained to the manager. You cannot say The manager was explained-the situation. Verbs such as want, demonstrate, exclude, emphasize, deliver behave in the same way.

PRACTICE

Exercise 1. Write the missing words in sentence B so that it means the same as sentence A. 1. A. The letter was shown to the police. B. The police.................. 2. A. The leftovers were fed to the chickens. B. The chickens.................. 3. A. His wife was given his medals. B. His medals.................. 4. A. Several prizes were awarded to her for her work. B. She..................for her work. 5. A. Everything he wanted was bought for him. B. He..................he wanted. 6. A. Half an hour was allocated to us for our presentation. B. We................. for our presentation. Exercise 2. Write the correct passive form of the verb in brackets to complete each sentence, as shown. 1. The prize will be awarded. (award) to the team with the most correct answers. 2. It.................... (announce) yesterday that the couple are to divorce. 3. She claimed that the money.................... (give) to her by an admirer. 4. We.................... (show) great courtesy by our hosts. 5. After several phone calls, a place on another flight.................... (find) for Martha so shen was able to attend the meeting. 6. More than £50,000 a year.................... (pay) to outside consultants. …