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Anonymous Posted 21 years ago
Grammar

Does this sentence have a passive form?

Does this sentence have a passive form?

"The trolls lived under the bridge."

Thanks.
  

Top answer

I don't think it has, because "under the bridge" is not a direct object complement. In a passive sentence, the active voice direct object complement becomes the subject.

  • I don't think it has, because "under the bridge" is not a direct object complement.
  • In a passive sentence, the active voice direct object complement becomes the subject.
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14 Answers
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I don't think it has, because "under the bridge" is not a direct object complement. In a passive sentence, the active voice direct object complement becomes the subject.
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I find myself saying "The bridge was lived under by trolls."

But it may infringe some grammatical rule.

MrP
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Syntactically, English allows a prepositional object in active voice to become the subject in passive voice.

[1] PieAnne slept in this bed yesterday.
[2] This bed was slept in by PieAnne yesterday.
[3] Paco slept in this bed yesterday.
[4] This bed was slept in by Paco yesterday.
The sentence #2 is correct syntactically as well as semantically. The sentence #4 may be syn
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I wonder if this is a case of 'passivizing' while at the same time not being a 'true passive'. There are quite a number of cases where the object of a preposition can become a subject. Do these passivizations merit a different name than 'passive'? Is there some terminology to handle this? 'Oblique passive'? Something like that?

That bed was slept in by George Washington.
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Hmm. Does that mean we have a subject complement, rather than a true passive?

1. The bridge was lived under by trolls.

MrP
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MrPedanticDoes that mean we have a subject complement, rather than a true passive?

1. The bridge was lived under by trolls.I too am inclined to think so.

paco

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Just a question: "would anybody say that?" (supposing trolls do exist in real life)
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"Euuuuwch. Have you looked under that rickety bridge lately? It's absolutely disgusting down there."

"Oh, I know. I'm afraid it was lived under by a troll for a couple of years."

"A troll? [somewhat nervously] But it's gone now, right?"

"Oh yes, it went a long time ago. I don't know the exact story; but there was some unpleasantness with a family of billy-goats, I believ
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Ah! Emotion: smile So itwas a male troll!
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Apologies to all for my narrow-minded original answer...

And thank you Paco and MrP for providing your convincing examples

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