what is the passive form of the following sentence
“Rahim went to Dhaka.”
There is no passive form of this sentence (following the rules mechanically would give “Dhaka was gone to by Rahim”, but this is not acceptable English). If you must make a passive then you would have to choose a different verb, such as “Dhaka was visited by Rahim”. However, this sounds odd unless Rahim is a very notable person whose presence in a city is a big event. For example, you might say “Dhaka was visited by the Pope”.
Hi Duet062010,
It is only possible to make a verb into a passive form if that verb takes an object and then it is possible to make the object into the subject and the verb into the passive.
Example: Charlie caught (verb) a fish (object) in the lake.
We make ’ fish’ the subject and change ‘caught’ into the passive:
A fish (new subject) was caught (past passive) by Charlie.
Alan
However, it is possible in some cases to make passive constructions even when there is no direct object. For example, “Others thought well of him” -> “He was thought well of by others”. “think of” is analogous to “go to” in the relevant sense, so the reason why “Dhaka was gone to by Rahim” does not work is not strictly a grammatical one, it seems to me.
Hi,
I can’t accept that. In your example ‘think well of’ is a prepostional verb that does take an object - in this case the object is ‘him’ and that then becomes the subject. ‘Was gone’ doesn’t work in the passive because ‘go’ can’t take an object. If you use another prepositional verb such as ‘go through’ suggesting ‘check’ or ‘examine’, this could be used in the passive as in: He went through the papers. This becomes: The papers were gone through (by him).
Alan
Alan
How do you feel about “There is a sacred river spot in India which for many hundreds of years was travelled to by many thousands of pilgrims.”?
Hi,
About the same as I feel about my example above!
Alan
Alan, which example do you mean? Do you mean you find the “travel” example feasible or not?
Hi,
The active form is: … a spot which thousands have travelled to …, which can convert to a passive form.
Alan
So if “travel to” can convert to a passive form, why can’t “go to”? (Of course, I’m not suggesting that “has been gone to” is good English, just that it is not grammatically forbidden.)