Hi Alan,
Kindly explain which one of the following sentences is correct:
- Participants will be benefited immensely from this training programme.
- Participants will benefit immensely from this training programme.
Souba73
Hi Souba73,
The learning English will be more tasty, if we don’t understand the grammar properly.
If we go deep in grammar, we cannot enjoy the English as much as I enjoyed on the
forum.
Answer to your doubt:
Participants will be immensely benefited of this training programme.
Please ignore if you find my correction is wrong.
Thank you
S.Shanthi
The correct sentence is sentence 2:
2. Participants will benefit immensely from this training programme.
Hi Alan,
Confusion continues to be there. Pl. comment.
Souba73
Though you have repeatedly addressed your question to Alan, there is no need for any confusion. Sentence against No.2 is the correct option, as already answered.
In my view, the first may become acceptable provided it is modified a little: Participants will be benefited immensely by this training programme.
(Alan might be on some other forum of this website. You may expect his appearance soon.)
I’ve always found the passive form of the verb “benefit” horribly awkward.
Looking forward to more comments. 
I agree. There is no reason to use the passive form there.
From the leaner’s perspective, I can understand why he/she contructed the sentence like that. In my country, generally when they teach students the passive voice, as long as the verb is transitive, you can create the passive sentence. In real life, It becomes horribly awkward with some verbs (like this one). I do not know “benefit” cannot be used as passive until read this one. Though, in real ife we always have many special cases when applying grammar, The sentence will become awkward. The native speakers would never say in that way.There is always a gap between teaching grammar academically and appying it to daily speaking/writing.
BTW, Another way to say is
This training programme will benefit participants immensely.
Yes, the active voice is more acceptable. However, there is nothing to show that ‘benefit’ cannot be passivised. Technically, it is possible for us to turn any transitively used verb into passive. The passivised usage may not be in vogue. Speakers and writers are inclined to follow what is generally practised and adopted.
If we take ‘Helen has been drinking a lot of water since morning’ for passivisation, we will immediately realise that the present/past perfect progressive construction is not (but not ‘cannot be’) passivised. But grammarians say that it IS possible (A lot of water has been being drunk by Helen since morning), though this construction is not being used, as it sounds very odd, absurd and unnatural.
The passive voice in the sentence in question is not simply “not in vogue”. It is “off, absurd and unnatural”.
Participants will be benefited immensely from this training programme. (it shows uncertainty)
Participants will benefit immensely from this training programme. (It shows certainty).
So the second one is obviously correct I feel.
Expecting more comments to my opinion.
No Thanks
S.Shanti
This is not a question of ‘certainty’ or ‘uncertainty’. Both sentences show certainty. The passive form is unnecessary and sounds odd.
Hi everybody,
As you know, the entries find place in British National Corpus (BNC) are accepted as standard usage of English. In BNC I have found some entries where ‘benefit’ has been used in passive forms. All are requested to consult BNC and then comment.
Souba73