0
Peta Posted 19 years ago
Grammar
Passives - prepositional verbs
0 Hello, 02 br
02 br
00 I need help with these. 02 br
02 br
00 Is this sentence OK? "These caves were once 01 b 00 lived in 02 b 00 by primitive men." Can we use this? If so, why we cannot use a similar sentence like: A tunnel was gone into by ...? 02 br
02 br
00 I know that this can be used only when it has an abstract meaning like: "A problem was carefully gone into." But then the sentence with caves wouldn´t be all right. I am a bit confused about these prepositional verbs, which can be turned into passives and which can´t? Thanks for any help. 0-
02 br
00 I need help with these. 02 br
02 br
00 Is this sentence OK? "These caves were once 01 b 00 lived in 02 b 00 by primitive men." Can we use this? If so, why we cannot use a similar sentence like: A tunnel was gone into by ...? 02 br
02 br
00 I know that this can be used only when it has an abstract meaning like: "A problem was carefully gone into." But then the sentence with caves wouldn´t be all right. I am a bit confused about these prepositional verbs, which can be turned into passives and which can´t? Thanks for any help. 0-
Top answer
02 br 02 br 00 As is always the case with passives, however, you should first ask yourself if turning an object into the subject of a sentence (which is always what the passive does) is really justified. 02 br 02 br 00 In your tunnel sentence, you wrote "a tunnel", which is very non-specific. e.
- 02 br 02 br 00 As is always the case with passives, however, you should first ask yourself if turning an object into the subject of a sentence (which is always what the passive does) is really justified.
- 02 br 02 br 00 In your tunnel sentence, you wrote "a tunnel", which is very non-specific.
- e.
- very specific and important to the sentence.
- 02 i 02 br 02 br 00 I would say that the passive would rarely be justified in my example above.
Get the Weekly English Kit 📬
New words, one handy idiom, and a 2-minute quiz — delivered to your inbox to keep your streak alive.
4 Answers
0
0 Hi Peta 02 br
02 br
00 I don't know that there is any "official" list of which prepositional verbs can/should be made passive. 02 br
02 br
00 As is always the case with passives, however, you should first ask yourself if turning an object into the subject of a sentence (which is always what the passive does) is really justified. Turning the object into the subj
02 br
00 I don't know that there is any "official" list of which prepositional verbs can/should be made passive. 02 br
02 br
00 As is always the case with passives, however, you should first ask yourself if turning an object into the subject of a sentence (which is always what the passive does) is really justified. Turning the object into the subj
00
0 Welcome to English Forums! 02 br
02 br
00 There are several competing theories of why some sentences with prepositional phrases can be passivized and some can't. None of them, as far as I know, are able to explain all the possible cases. 02 br
02 br
00 One theory is that if the prepositional phrase is an adjunct, passivization is not possible. If the ph
02 br
00 There are several competing theories of why some sentences with prepositional phrases can be passivized and some can't. None of them, as far as I know, are able to explain all the possible cases. 02 br
02 br
00 One theory is that if the prepositional phrase is an adjunct, passivization is not possible. If the ph
00
the answer is very simple, u cannot use the verbs of motion, like "go" in the passive...
00
Anonymousthe answer is very simple, u cannot use the verbs of motion, like "go" in the passive...Not as the simple verb, true. But the question was about prepositional verbs, which are more than just a simple verb of motion.
These are not commonly heard in the passive, but they are possible.
to go over (something)
We went over the
0
Related Questions