The passive voice of "Somebody took a photo of me."

Question

Hi, I have a question following. Does anybody help me?

How can I write the following sentence in the passice voice?

"Somebody took a photo of me".

I mean I want to wirte this in the form like "I was taken a photo of".
Is this correct English?

Clive · Accepted Answer

Hi,

Welcome to the Forum.

How can I write the following sentence in the passive voice?

"Somebody took a photo of me".

I mean I want to write this in the form like "I was taken a photo of".No. You'd have to say

'A photo was taken of me (by somebody)'.

You could say 'I was photographed (by somebody)'.

Best wishes, Clive

Luu · Answer

Don't know what the situation is.

you want someone to take a photo - I have somebody take a photo.
or
someone took photos of you by a hidden camera - I was taken photos.

are these correct?

CalifJim · Answer

Welcome to English Forums!

How can I write the following sentence in the passive voice?

The same as you do for any passive formation. It's as easy as 1 - 2 - 3.

1. Divide into subject, verb, and object.
The dog || bit || the man.

2. Exchange subject and object, adding by to the subject, which is now moved to the end.
The man || bit || by the dog.

3. Change the verb from its active form to its passive form.
The man || was bitten || by the dog.

The passive is: The man was bitten by the dog.

For your sentence:

1. Somebody || took || a photo of me.

2. A photo of me || took || by somebody.

3. A photo of me || was taken || by somebody.

A photo of me was taken by somebody.

CJ

Appleton · Answer

Hi Clive, CalifJim and Luu

CalifJim,
How about this sentence?
"He took care of me".

Although the object of this is "care of me", I think you never say "Care of me was taken by him".
The proper answer would be "I was taken care of by him".

In this case, "take care of" is considered to be a verb.

In the same way, it seemed reasonable to me to say "I was taken a photo of by somebody".
That is why I asked you.
I know how to make the passive voice in general.

Hi Luu,
Generally, in order to say "I was taken photos",
it is necessary that its active voice is "Somebody took me photos" which I think is incorrect.

Clive
To me, your answer seems the most understandable. Thanks a lot!

Many thanks

Believer · Answer

Thank you, Clive.

I was looking at Abdessalami On Line on its help on The Passive Voice and have some questions on its example sentence:

For its Present tense example, it gave this example sentence in the active voice: The police arrest five people every night; and it gave this this example sentence for the passive voice: Every night five people are arrested. As it seems to me, the passive voice part lacks one part missing or seems ellipted -- the police part. Why is it omitted or ellipted as the case might be?

In your response, you put in parentheses the phrase 'by somebody' and didn't include it in the sentence that suppose to be the right sentence in the passive voice. Why did you do that?

I seem to have seen similar patterns for various tenses in the passive voice. Why is that?

GL2 · Answer

Believer
Thank you, Clive.

I was looking at Abdessalami On Line on its help on The Passive Voice and have some questions on its example sentence:

For its Present tense example, it gave this example sentence in the active voice: The police arrest five people every night; and it gave this this example sentence for the passive voice: Every night five people are arrested. As it seems to me, the passive voice part lacks one part missing or seems ellipted -- the police part. Why is it omitted or ellipted as the case might be?

In your response, you put in parentheses the phrase 'by somebody' and didn't include it in the sentence that suppose to be the right sentence in the passive voice. Why did you do that?

I seem to have seen similar patterns for various tenses in the passive voice. Why is that?

Not to steal Clive's thunder, but since I'm online and he's not, I'll answer your question.

In the passive voice, the subject is acted upon, and the person or thing doing the acting often appears as the object of the preposition 'by.' However, it is not necessary to include the person or thing doing the acting, which is why Clive put 'by someone' in parenthesis. The sentence would be grammatically correct with or without that part.

While the passive voice is grammatically correct, it can lead to confusion on the part of the listener if you do not state who or what is doing the acting. When it's understood, you can leave it out, otherwise, you should include it for the sake of clarity.

You can also use the passive voice if you don't know or wish to conceal the identify of the person or thing doing the acting.

"The car was stolen in the middle of the night."

"Why is your little brother crying?"

"He got punched in the face."

"Was it you who hit him?"

"Let's just say he got punched and leave it at that!"

From a style point of view, the frequent use of the passive voice is often frowned upon by English writing teachers. The active voice is usually preferred (by teachers

) both for its clarity and its more direct style, although the passive voice is still acceptable when its use is justified.

Clive · Answer

Hi guys,

Yes, I agree with GL2's 'thunder'.

I put 'by somebody' in parentheses because it does not add anything to the sentence. It is obvious that somebody took the picture.

Similarly, when you say Every night five people are arrested, it is obvious that it was by the police because only the police can arrest people.

( Of course, if you live in a country where other organizations have power to arrest, you might then want to identify who did the arresting. )

As a very general comment, I would say that many learners of English tend to include obvious information in what they say or write. A native speaker does not normally do this. Consider, for example, the way many words are often simply repeated in many of the sentences that are posted in our Forum.

Best wishes, Clive

CalifJim · Answer

CalifJim,
How about this sentence?
"He took care of me".

Although the object of this is "care of me", I think you never say "Care of me was taken by him".
The proper answer would be "I was taken care of by him".

In this case, "take care of" is considered to be a verb.

In the same way, it seemed reasonable to me to say "I was taken a photo of by somebody".
That is why I asked you.

I understand now. It does seem reasonable, but it doesn't work that way.

The division for the photo case is, as shown above,

Somebody | took | a photo of me. take a photo of is not considered a verb.

But the other one divides differently because, as you say, take care of is considered a verb.

He | took care of | me. (I was taken care of by him.)

CJ

Anonymous · Answer

You should write:
I had my photo taken.

The passive voice of "Somebody took a photo of me."

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