I was bought a car.

[everestdude]

Good morning,

A: I was bought a car.
B: A car was bought for me.

Are these passive sentences grammatically correct? The reason I asked is because I rarely hear them so I was wondering if they are correct.

 

[entangledbank]

The simplest passive of sentence A uses 'by': A car was bought by me. But we very rarely say this, with a personal pronoun (like 'me') as agent. If you say 'for me', that's different. I didn't buy the car, someone else bought the car for me. But it is still unlikely; we're more likely to use the double object construction in the active: My parents bought me a car.

 

[SevenDays]

Good morning,

A: I was bought a car.
B: A car was bought for me.

Are these passive sentences grammatically correct? The reason I asked is because I rarely hear them so I was wondering if they are correct.

A car was bought by me is the passive of A.

It's grammatically correct, but it's no wonder you rarely hear it. Passive means "demoting" the subject, making it less prominent in the sentence. It's a bit odd for the speaker to "demote" himself that way.

 

[everestdude]

Sentence A is a passive sentence itself.

1: she bought me a car.

2: I was bought a car by her.

Isn’t sentence 2 a passive form of sentence 1?

 

[grassy]

Sentence A is a passive sentence itself.

1: she bought me a car.

2: I was bought a car by her.

Isn’t sentence 2 a passive form of sentence 1?

That's correct.

 

[Loob]

Good morning,

A: I was bought a car.
B: A car was bought for me.

Are these passive sentences grammatically correct? The reason I asked is because I rarely hear them so I was wondering if they are correct.

A car was bought by me is the passive of A.

No it's not - I think you misread everestdude's sentence.

(See posts 4 and 5.)

 

[Aguas Claras]

"I was bought a car" and "A car was bought for me" are both gramatically correct and mean the same thing. But, it is highly unlikely that you would say that somebody had bought you a car without saying who it was, so the sentences sound strange. So, as people have pointed out, you would be more likely to say "My parents bought me a car".

More likely examples along the same lines might be: "We were given programmes at the theatre door" or "Programmes were given to us at the theatre door".