Passive sentences with two objects / oraciones pasivas con dos objetos

This kind of passives are a nightmare for my students . Above all the one in which the subject is the Indirect Object, which souns weird for the "spanish ears".

Here you are some examples: ( el objeto indirecto en rojo y el directo en verde)


1) Kevin asked Dennis a question. (active )

Dennis was asked a question by Kevin.

( En este caso el O.indirecto es el sujeto, verb to be en pasado como en la oración activa seguido de part. p.; el O. directo y finalmente el agente introducido con by, que era el sujeto en la activa)

A question was asked to Dennis by Kevin .

(Este ejemplo en el que el Objeto directo es sujeto de la pasiva es más españolizado, y menos frecuente en Inglés, pero gramaticalmente correcto.)


2) She gives him a box.

He is given a box.

(el sujeto es el OI; como el pronombre personal es dativo , lo cambiamos a sujeto por eso el pronombre personal sujeto de 3ªpers. sing es He y no him. )

A box is given to him.

( El sujeto es el Objeto directo. En ninguna d elas dos pasivas utilizamos el agente introducido por "by" ya que el sujeto es un mero pronombre. La pasiva en si se utiliza para obviar el sujeto, lo que nos interesa es la acción; encima si ni siquiera sabemos quien la realizó( she, they, somebody,,,) no lo ponemos en la pasiva.

Transforma estas frases a pasiva en las dos formas:
Transform these sentences into the passive voice, it's your turn!

3) The waiter brought Fred a big steak.


4) The teacher told us a joke.


5) Michael has not sent me a text message.

Have a look to the comments to find out the answers!!

(las soluciones en los comentarios, pero hazlas primero en un papel!!)

Why is “dog” one of the great mysteries of the English language?

Behind the simplest words one can often find the most compelling questions. Take for example, “dog.”

Canis familiaris, also known as “dog,” is essentially a domesticated wolf. The dog is a member of the Canidae family, like the jackal and the fox.

About seven centuries ago, the word “hound,” which came from the Old English hund, was the word for all domestic canines. “Dog” was just used to refer to a subgroup of hounds that includes the lovely but frequently slobbering mastiff.

Of course, the opposite is now true. We use dog to talk about all of man’s best friends, from lovable golden retrievers to panting chow chows. And hound is now used to indicate a type of dog used just for hunting. Hound especially refers to a dog with a long face and large, droopy ears. Linguists still speculate about the reversal of fortune for “hound” and “dog.” One idea suggests that the sub-breed known as “dogs” became so populous that “dog” simply became the generic term (sort of an animal equivalent of the way brand names can become so ubiquitous that they start to be used as a general term for their purpose.)

The number of uses of “dog” is remarkable even by the standards of the dictionary. We call sleazy men dogs. We also call our feet dogs. A worthless object, such as a wobbly, rusty bike, is also called a dog.

(Don’t forget about the hot dog. Read about the gross but amazing origin of this dish, here.)

There also seems to be an endless number of idioms incorporating the word, such as “sick as a dog.”

The expressions “a dog’s life” and “go to the dogs” likely refer to a time when the animals were used primarily for hunting and not kept as pets.

The phrase “put on the dog” means to “get dressed up.” It may refer to the stiff, stand-up shirt collars (also known as dog collars) that were all the rage in the late nineteenth century.

A dog-eared page is named after the way many dogs’ ears fold down, as opposed to the perky, upright wolf ear.

Employing the phrase “hair of the dog” to talk about using alcohol as a hangover cure may be as old as drinking itself. The first recorded use is with Pliny, the ancient Roman writer.

From: hot word blog dictionary.