Passive sentence

[everestdude]

A: I saw her go to the club.
B: She was seen to go to the club.

A: I look forward to the weekend.
B: The weekend is looked forward to.

Are sentence Bs the correct passive form of sentence As?

 

[lingobingo]

A gerund would be much more natural in the first one.

 

[Cenzontle]

For B, you've done the correct transformation, but it sounds awkward.
A more natural way to express that meaning:
"The weekend is eagerly anticipated."

 

[everestdude]

For B, you've done the correct transformation, but it sounds awkward.
A more natural way to express that meaning:
"The weekend is eagerly anticipated."

Thank you for your reply. Can you please check one more sentence?

A: I believe in god.
B: God is believed in.

Is sentence B the passive form of sentence A and does it sound awkward too?

 

[Keith Bradford]

...Is sentence B the passive form of sentence A and does it sound awkward too?

Yes to both questions.

Everestdude, all passives tend to sound awkward, if there's a perfectly good active equivalent. Why torture the poor language? Use the active voice unless you have a very good reason not to.

 

[london calling]

I agree, these transformations are all awkward, if technically correct.

 

[bennymix]

In the OP, the passives are awkward. But in fact they're used by good writers fairly often (say 10%) --as in this sentence!

Why Most Advice on the Passive Voice is Wrong This link has a good discussion of the issue.

 

[bearded]

Is sentence B the passive form of sentence A

Since in A the subject is I , I find that in the B sentences you should add ''by me'' (which you omitted).

 

[grassy]

Since in A the subject is I , I find that in the B sentences you should add ''by me'' (which you omitted).

Indeed, ...which would result in the sentence being even more awkward than it already is.

 

[bennymix]

The linguist Pullum wrote an essay, now famous, debunking myths about the passive, e.g. that it's weak, ineffective, evasive.
http://www.lel.ed.ac.uk/~gpullum/passive_loathing.pdf

He points out that Orwell's famous essay* condemning passives has at least 13% passives.

This is not a statistical quirk. Orwell’s writing features significantly more passives than typical prose. By one count, on average in typical prose about 13% of the transitive verbs are in the passive, whereas in Orwell’s essay ‘Politics and the English language’ it is 20% (Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary of English Usage, p. 720, citing Bryant 1962). My own counts, adhering strictly to the definitions of Huddleston & Pullum et al. (2002), are somewhat higher... {http://www.lel.ed.ac.uk/~gpullum/passive_loathing.pdf }

*Politics and the English language.

 

[lingobingo]

I agree it’s important for learners to appreciate that the passive voice should be used sparingly, but they certainly shouldn’t be put off using it altogether. It has its virtues – to the extent that it’s often the active form of a statement that would be out of place, because the focus is on whoever or whatever receives an action, not who or what carries it out: e.g. I think the boy is being bullied at school; many were forced to leave their homes; the risk was known about for years before any action was taken.

In the OP examples, “the weekend is looked forward to” is a prime example of when not to use the passive, but something like “she was seen going into the club” is the standard way of stating that fact in a legal or journalistic context.

 

[bennymix]

A: I saw her go to the club.
B: She was seen to go to the club.

A: I look forward to the weekend.
B: The weekend is looked forward to.

Are sentence Bs the correct passive form of sentence As?

While these examples don't work and seem weak, it's important to see how sentences can be made powerful, even persuasive, with the passive. Note Cenzontle's {#3} reworking of your second example while retaining the passive:

"The weekend is eagerly anticipated."

Here are some examples from Orwell's famous essay I referred to [10 above], on weak, flabby English-- an essay denouncing overuse of passives! (About 6 of 8 main verbs are passive!)

The keynote is the elimination of simple verbs. Instead of being a single word, such as break, stop, spoil, mend, kill, a verb becomes a phrase, made up of a noun or adjective tacked on to some general-purposes verb such as prove, serve, form, play, render. In addition, the passive voice is wherever possible used in preference to the active, and noun constructions are used instead of gerunds (by examination of instead of by examining). The range of verbs is further cut down by means of the -ize and de- formations, and banal statements are given an appearance of profundity by means of the not un- formation. Simple conjunctions and prepositions are replaced by such phrases as with respect to, having regard to, the fact that, by dint of, in view of, in the interests of, on the hypothesis that; and the ends of sentences are saved from anticlimax by such resounding commonplaces as greatly to be desired,