Passive with Two Objects — Exercises on I was given
Practice passives with two objects and prepositional verbs: I was given, we were offered, it was explained to me, she's being looked after.
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On my first day at work, I ___ a laptop and a new phone.
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was given
The company gave me a laptop. With 'give' the person can become the subject of the passive: 'I was given a laptop'. 'I gave' would mean I handed them out.
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My grandmother is very ill, so she's being looked ___ by a nurse at home.
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after
'Look after' = take care of. In the passive the preposition stays with the verb: 'she's being looked after'. 'Looked for' means searched for; 'looked up' is for information in a dictionary.
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When I asked about the delay, ___ in detail.
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the situation was explained to me
'Explain' is not like 'give': the person can't be the subject. Only the thing explained becomes the subject, and the person always needs 'to': 'the situation was explained to me'. 'Explained me' without 'to' is wrong.
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Nobody reacted to my ideas in the meeting — I felt I wasn't being listened ___.
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to
The verb is 'listen to', and in the passive the preposition stays at the end: 'being listened to'. It looks strange, but dropping 'to' is the mistake.
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Our room wasn't ready when we arrived, so we ___ a 20% discount.
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were offered
The hotel offered us a discount → with 'offer', the person can be the subject of the passive: 'we were offered a discount'.
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On our first day, we ___ a long list of rules to learn.
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were given
'Give' lets the person be the subject: 'we were given a list'. 'Explain' and 'describe' don't — you can only say 'the rules were explained to us'.
Passive with Two Objects and with Prepositional Verbs
Verbs like give, offer, send, show, tell and lend have two objects, a person and a thing, and in the passive the person usually becomes the subject: On my first day, I was given a laptop, We were offered a 20% discount. This feels natural in English because the sentence is about what happened to the person. Explain, describe, suggest and say look similar but do not allow it: only the thing can be the subject, and the person follows to — The situation was explained to me, never I was explained the situation. Verbs that come with their own preposition — look after, listen to, deal with, laugh at, hand in — keep it directly after the participle, even at the end of the sentence: She's being looked after by a nurse, I felt I wasn't being listened to. Dropping the preposition, not keeping it, is the mistake.
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