Passive voice

Question

Hi Everyone,I'm working on the passive and writing up an exercise sheet.Here is a passive sentence;' Sue was given a box of chocolates by her boyfriend.'Is Sue the object here, and the boyfriend the subject?She is the one being acted upon, as I see it.ThanksCC.

CalifJim · Accepted Answer

Active: Sue's boyfriend gave her a box of chocolates.
'her' is the indirect object. 'a box of chocolates' is the direct object.

First passive (making the direct object the subject):
A box of chocolates was given to Sue by her boyfriend. (There is no object in this passive sentence.)

Second passive (making the indirect object the subject):
Sue was given a box of chocolates by her boyfriend. ('a box of chocolates' is the object in this passive sentence.)

Any active sentence with two objects (direct and indirect) has two passives.

To introduce passives to students with sentences that have both kinds of objects may be considered cruel and unusual punishment. Maybe you should stick to sentences with just one direct object if you are presenting your students with passive sentences for the first time. John threw the ball. The dog bit the man. Lucy found a diamond ring. That sort of thing.

Cup cakeShe is the one being acted upon, as I see it.

Maybe so, but the determination of subjects and objects does not depend on the meanings to that extent. You are attempting to do a thematic analysis where what is required is a syntactic analysis. Subjects are underlined in my examples above.

CJ

Cup cake · Answer

Chocolate donuts to you CJ!

Thank you once again for a great explanation.

Objects and indirect objects are not something I've ever had to teach actually. I still find them a little confusing, but only because I've never really 'relearned' them.

The English language is so utterly fascinating - 'me thinks'.

CalifJim · Answer

Cup cakeObjects and indirect objects are not something I've ever had to teach actually. I still find them a little confusing, but only because I've never really 'relearned' them.

Here's your chance! See

CJ

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Cup cake · Answer

Brilliant!
Thanks CJ.

BTW, do you think that an object as the one below can be a 'doer'?

Example:

' The dishwasher is cleaning the dishes.'

I know that we would say something like,

'Sue is washing the dishes', meaning that she stacked the dishwasher. However, it's the automatic dishwasher that actually cleans the dishes.

CalifJim · Answer

Yes, the dishwasher can "do" something. It can wash the dishes, of course. So "the dishwasher" can be the subject of a sentence, if that's what you're concerned about.

CJ

Cup cake · Answer

Thanks CJ.

OK, so the 'doer' is simply the subject. That's what I wanted to confirm. I wanted to make sure they are one and of the same thing.

Happy Monday.

CalifJim · Answer

Cup cakeso the 'doer' is simply the subject.

In thousands of sentences, yes, but not always. The subject is more like the topic you're saying something about, and what you're saying about the topic (subject) doesn't always have to be "doing something". If you say "The book was lying on the kitchen table", "the book" is the subject, but it's not really doing anything. If you say "That man is six feet tall", "that man" is the subject, but he's not doing anything. So you need to allow for the fact that not every subject of a sentence is "a doer".

CJ

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