B2 · Upper Intermediate Chapter 20

Passive Verbs with Two Objects

1 Total Rules
5 examples
1 min
Rules in This Chapter Quick Practice

Chapter in 30 Seconds

Master the art of shifting focus when a verb has two objects.

  • Identify direct and indirect objects in active sentences.
  • Transform sentences into two distinct passive forms.
  • Choose the most natural subject for professional communication.
Two objects, two passives, total control.

What You'll Learn

Learn how to form passive sentences when a verb has two objects, and how to choose which object becomes the subject.

Learning Objectives

By the end of this chapter, you will be able to:

  1. 1
    By the end you will be able to rewrite sentences like 'They gave me a book' into both passive variations accurately.

Tips & Tricks (1)

💡

Focus on the subject

If you want to talk about the person, make them the subject. If you want to talk about the thing, make it the subject.
frontend.learn_grammar.from_rule: Passive with Two Objects: She Was Given a Prize / A Prize Was Given to Her

Key Vocabulary (6)

award to give a prize or mark of recognition grant to agree to give or allow something requested offer to present something for someone to accept or reject lend to give something temporarily owe to have an obligation to pay or give something promise to assure someone that one will do or give something

Real-World Preview

briefcase

The Promotion Meeting

Review Summary

  • [Subject (Person)] + [be] + [V3] + [Direct Object] OR [Subject (Thing)] + [be] + [V3] + [to/for] + [Indirect Object]

Common Mistakes

When the direct object (the thing) is the subject, you must usually use 'to' or 'for' before the indirect object (the person).

Wrong: The money was sent me.
Correct: The money was sent to me.

Some verbs, like 'explain', 'suggest', or 'describe', do not allow the person to be the subject of a passive sentence.

Wrong: I was explained the problem.
Correct: The problem was explained to me.

Verbs like 'make', 'buy', or 'get' use the preposition 'for' instead of 'to' in the passive voice.

Wrong: A cake was made to her.
Correct: A cake was made for her.

Next Steps

Congratulations! You have completed the final chapter of this level. You now possess the sophisticated grammatical tools needed to navigate professional and academic English with confidence. Keep practicing these structures to make them second nature!

Write a formal email explaining a mistake where 'the wrong information was given to a client'.

Continue to: Foundations of Description and Connection

Quick Practice (3)

Fill in the blank.

I was ___ a prize.

✓ Correct! ✗ Not quite. Correct answer: given
Passive needs past participle.

frontend.learn_grammar.from_rule: Passive with Two Objects: She Was Given a Prize / A Prize Was Given to Her

Correct the sentence.

Find and fix the mistake:

A prize was given me.

✓ Correct! ✗ Not quite. Correct answer: A prize was given to me.
Need 'to' for the object-subject form.

frontend.learn_grammar.from_rule: Passive with Two Objects: She Was Given a Prize / A Prize Was Given to Her

Choose the correct form.

Which is correct?

✓ Correct! ✗ Not quite. Correct answer: She was sent an email.
Standard person-subject passive.

frontend.learn_grammar.from_rule: Passive with Two Objects: She Was Given a Prize / A Prize Was Given to Her

Score: /3

Common Questions (2)

No, only with ditransitive verbs like 'give', 'send', 'offer'.
It marks the recipient in the object-subject passive.
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