3.3 Passive constructions with verbs which take two objects

There are a number of verbs which take two objects — a direct and an indirect object. The following are most frequent among them: to allow, to ask, to award, to give, to grant, to leave, to offer, to promise, to send, to show, to teach, to tell.

These verbs admit two passive constructions:

1. A book was given to him (the direct primary passive)

2. He was given a book (the indirect secondary passive)

The indirect (secondary) passive is not infrequent in verb-phrases with the verb to give, such as: to give credit, to give command, to give a chance, to give a choice, to give an explanation, to give an opportunity, to give orders, to give shelter, and the like.

He was given a good chance to argue.	Йому дали гарний шанс посперечатися.
She is given an opportunity to go to the south in summer.	Їй надають можливість поїхати на південь у літку.
Suppose, you are given a choice. What would you prefer?	Припустимо, у тебе є вибір. Чому б ти віддав перевагу?

There are many verbs in English which take a direct and an indirect object in the active construction, but they admit only one passive construction — the direct passive, e. g.: to bring, to do, to play, to telegraph and many others. The list could be extended. Other verbs are not reversed in particular turns of meaning. Thus, have has no passive when it is state, as in: She has gold hair.

3.4 Prepositional passive constructions

Next come constructions with the so-called prepositional or tertiary-passive. What in the active is the object of a preposition connected with a verb or with a verb and its object may be made the subject of a passive construction. The subject of the passive construction corresponds to the prepositional object. This “detached” preposition retains its place after the verb. Familiar examples are:

He was sent for and taken care of.	За ним послали та попіклувалися про нього.
She could not bear being read to any longer.	Вона була більше не в силах витримати того, що їй читають.
He is not to be relied upon.	На нього не слід покладатися.

The prepositional passive is not used with verbs which take two objects, direct and prepositional: to explain something to somebody, to point out, to announce, to dedicate, to devote, to say, to suggest, to propose, etc. They can only have a direct construction, e.g.:

The difficulty was explained to them.	Їм пояснили ускладнення.
The mistake to the rule was pointed out to the man.	Чоловіку вказали на помилку в правилі.
A new plan was suggested to us.	Нам запропонували новий план.

The prepositional passive is not very frequent in occurrence. Its use is common with rather a limited number of verbs, such as:

1) verbs of saying: to speak about (of, to), to talk about (of), to comment on, etc., e. g.:

The new play was much spoken of.

Нову п’єсу багато обговорювали.

2) verbs expressing scorn or contempt: to frown at, to laugh at, to mock at, to jeer at, to sneer at, etc., e. g.:

This idea was first jeered at.	Спочатку над цією ідеєю кепкували
He could not understand why his words were laughed at.	Він не міг зрозуміти, чому над його словами сміялися.

3) a miscellaneous group of verbs, such as: to look at, to look upon (on), to look after, to look for, to approve (disapprove) of, to account for, to send for, to rely on, to think of, e. g.:

Here is Irene to be thought of.

Це про Ірен слід поміркувати.

The passive construction with the “retained” object (or “remaining accusative”) has limits and is impossible with particular verbs or particular objects, e.g.: we can say “Something was fetched me”, but scarcely “I was fetched something”. On the other hand, “The trouble was spared me” is not so natural as “I was spared the trouble”. Possibilities are sometimes even more limited; e.g.: we cannot say either “I was cost nothing” or “Nothing was cost me.”

Certain verbs of removal and exclusion (such as: banish, expel, discharge, eject, exclude, exile, forbid) governing two objects are used chiefly in the passive, e.g.:

He was banished the realm.	Його позбавили корони.
He was dismissed the service.	Його звільнили зі служби.
They have been expelled from the school.	Їх виключили зі школи.

The infinitive as a second object is found with a number of verbs, such as: allow, ask, beg, beseech, bid, command, compel, declare, entreat, feel, force, encourage, incline, induce, know, lead, make, order, observe, persuade, pray, prefer, perceive, presume, pronounce, see, teach, understand, wish, etc.