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perma
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Passive voice transformation
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Hello! Could you help me with this one? The sentence is to be turned into passive: -> Who could have left this box at our door?
a) Who could this box have been left at our door by? b) Who could have this box been left at our door by?
Which one? Are they both possible? |
7 Feb 2012
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isa2
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I agree with maryse pey�, although I would like to add another version that sounds more common to me:
By whom could this box have been left at our door?
Version a) sounds a bit "constructed" even though it is absolutely correct.
Best regards
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7 Feb 2012
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yanogator
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I agree with everything that isa2 said (which means I also agree with maryse).
Option b is not correct word order.
Bruce
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7 Feb 2012
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ELOJOLIE274
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is it me or is the passive of this question sounds weird!!! I don �t mean incorrect but simply "unspeakable" if you see what I mean ;) I don �t think anyone would actually say that and it would be very strange to find it in a text, don �t you think???
or many native speakers actually use sentences like that all the time and i �ve never noticed it...
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7 Feb 2012
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plabrosse
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Hi I am English and it �s a) the correct answer. Without a doubt.We don �t use "by whom" any more except in literary texts. The "by whom" sounds even more constructed than putting the preposition at the end of the question ( as always). |
7 Feb 2012
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yanogator
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Elojolie, passive voice sentences often (maybe even usually) sound strange, but we study them, so we need examples. In a real situation, a person would say "I wonder who left this box by our door."
Bruce |
7 Feb 2012
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perma
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Thanks everyone for the input 
It does sound strange I know but my students needed to practice more complex structures so I did my best to challenge them!
I know that (a) is the correct answer but in the class, after having heard 4 or 5 wrong answers I accepted (b) as correct by one of my students. I realised it was wrong after the lesson was over and was just hoping that it was not soooo wrong! That �s why I asked you.  I guess I fell into my own trap!
Katerina |
7 Feb 2012
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PhilipR
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I don �t think teaching or drilling students these complex passive constructions is useful. On the contrary, it goes against the grain of speaking English naturally.
I personally would never use these kinds of passive in the classroom, but stick to natural and useful language.
I agree with Bruce that �I wonder who left this box by the door � or possibly �Who could have left this box by the door? � is the way to go.
IMO none of the options you give are correct in the real world.
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8 Feb 2012
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perma
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Agree. Yet, these students are going to sit the CPE exam in a couple of years and I think they need to be able to handle structures like this. Better said, I want them to recognise parts of speech and know how to "move them around" so to say to build new sentences. 
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8 Feb 2012
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looky
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I agrre with Phillipr. Speakimg is more important than grammar but understand that students do have to learn some. I speak three languages and only know English grammar. Spanish and Italian grammar I do not have a clue! |
8 Feb 2012
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