explain + passive voice

Hi Anon

No, the word 'to' is not optional. However, even with the word 'to', the sentence is extremely awkward. It's not a natural-sounding passive sentence.

This version of the passive would be much better:
Why he had done such terrible things wasn't explained to us.

Hi,

There is a sentence: We weren't explained to why he had done such terrible things.

And here is the question: is to optional or incorrect ? Can we get rid of it in sentences like the one above ?

You are not using the passive correctly here. You can't say 'We weren't explained . . . '

You need to say 'Something

We weren't explained to why he had done such terrible things.

This seems to be an incorrect version of the following sentence:

We were given no explanation as to why he had done such terrible things.

I'm not sure that explanation as to is the best grammar, but people do use it. explained as to or explained t

AnonymousThere is a sentence: We weren't explained to why he had done such terrible things.

Your sentence is incorrect. The structure you are using is possible with some verbs but not with explain. There is no rule or reason for this, English just isn't the most logical of languages. It is sometimes possible to use either

Hi Jim

I saw the main problem in the fact that we always use the word 'to' with the verb 'explain' when we want to mention the person on the receiving end of an explanation.. In other words, you can say "He explained the problem to me" but you cannot say "He explained me the problem".

That is unlike this pattern: "He gave the information to me." and "He gave me the inf