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Anonymous Posted 15 years ago
Grammar

Grammar

I was explained a new rule.

This sentence seems to be wrong. Am I right?
  

Top answer

This sentence is not completely wrong (syntactically), but is odd. This is written in the passive voice, active will be: Someone explained me a new rule, or A new rule was explained to me. The active sentence has two objects- Indirect and Direct(the new rule) Direct object is usualy the subject of the passive construction, not an indirect object..

— Anonymous

  • This sentence is not completely wrong (syntactically), but is odd.
  • This is written in the passive voice, active will be: Someone explained me a new rule, or A new rule was explained to me.
  • The active sentence has two objects- Indirect and Direct(the new rule) Direct object is usualy the subject of the passive construction, not an indirect object..
  • There are cases where both constructions are possible.
  • You have the passive construction with the indirect object in the active as the subject in the pasive, and it is a little strange ))
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2 Answers
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This sentence is not completely wrong (syntactically), but is odd.
This is written in the passive voice, active will be:
Someone explained me a new rule, or
A new rule was explained to me.
The active sentence has two objects- Indirect
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AnonymousI was explained a new rule.This sentence seems to be wrong. Am I right?
Yes, you are right. A preposition is needed with explain: He explained to me what had happened. Because of that, I cannot be used as the grammatical subject of your sentence.
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