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Verbs with two objects in the passive

Many verbs, such as give, send, show, lend, pay, promise, refuse, tell, offer, can be followed by two objects, an ‘indirect object’ and a ‘direct object’. These usually refer to a person (indirect object) and a thing (direct object). Two structures are possible.

  • A. verb + indirect object + direct object

    • She gave her sister the car.
    • I had already shown the police officer Sam’s photo.

  • B. verb + direct object + preposition + indirect object

    • She gave the car to her sister.
    • I had already shown Sam’s photo to the police officer.

Both of these structures can be made passive.

  • A. indirect object becomes subject of passive verb

    • Her sister was given the car.
    • The police officer had already been shown Sam’s photo.

  • B. direct object becomes subject of passive verb

    • The car was given to her sister.
    • Sam’s photo had already been shown to the police officer

The choice between the two passive structures may depend on what has been said before, or on what needs to be put last in the sentence ((see here), (see here). Structure A (e.g. Her sister was given the car) is the more common of the two. More examples:

  • I’ve just been sent a whole lot of information.
  • You were lent ten thousand pounds last year.
  • The visitors were shown a collection of old manuscripts.
  • They are being paid a lot of money for doing very little.
  • He was refused a visa because he had been in prison.
  • We will never be told the real truth.
  • How much have you been offered?

In structure B (e.g. The car was given to her sister), prepositions are sometimes dropped before indirect object pronouns.

  • This watch was given (to) me by my father.

Explain (see here) and suggest (see here) cannot be used in structure A.

  • The problem was explained to the children. (but not The children were explained the problem.)
  • A meeting place was suggested to us. (but not We were suggested a meeting place.)

Note that prepositional phrases like ‘to the police officer’ are not called ‘indirect objects’ in all grammars.

note

For more details of verbs with two objects, (see here).