MaXmOuSe  +  152809 Sat, 29 Oct 05 03:32 PM Could someone write all the verbs which can not be used in passive form - I know only the verb remain. Are there any other verbs and if there are - please write them all. Thank you in advance. MaXmOuSe Joined on Sun, Apr 24 2005 Full Member 200 High aims, high achievements! Verbs

	Mister Micawber  +  152817 Sat, 29 Oct 05 03:50 PM Far too many, I think, Max.  Did you check your grammar book?  If the list is small and finite, it will be there. Mister Micawber Joined on Wed, Aug 4 2004 Yokohama Veteran Member 30,788 'The question is,' said Humpty Dumpty, 'which is to be master-- that's all.' Grammar, Verbs

	MaXmOuSe  +  152887 Sat, 29 Oct 05 07:25 PM In my grammar book ? Ohh, Murphi,Longman or Gaberoff .... But after long searching I couldn't find any section of these verbs...   MaXmOuSe Grammar, Verbs

	Mister Micawber  +  152988 Sun, 30 Oct 05 12:24 AM OK, I found it in Quirk et al.  They call them middle verbs, and there is no list.  It includes many of the stative relational verbs (like remain, become): be have (I have a car) possess suit (This dress suits you) equal (six times three equals eighteen) consist (Japan consists of four main islands) suppose (I suppose so) etc. No intransitive verbs can be made passive, of course. Mister Micawber Verbs

	paco2004  +  153054 Sun, 30 Oct 05 03:57 AM Hello MaX As MM told, some verbs are non-passivizable by nature, but I think it's not so useful to sort verbs into passivizable ones and non-passivizable ones. It is because there are many cases such that a verb can be passivizable in a certain context but cannot in another context. For example, "This bed was slept in by Paco's wife" should sound quite weird, but "This bed was slept in by Marilyn Monroe" is OK. How come there is such a difference? Shortly speaking, in passive constructs, the subject's state should change as the results of the event stated by the sentence. My wife's sleeping in a bed brings nothing to the value of the bed, but Monroe's sleeping would change the bed's value greatly. Like this, whether a sentence can be passivized or not is a very difficult subject.  If you are interested in this kind of issue, please visit McElholm's Lecture Note on English Passive. paco paco2004 Joined on Wed, Nov 17 2004 Senior Member 4,095 In Japan today even dogs are learning how to bow-wow in English. Verbs

	Mister Micawber  +  153095 Sun, 30 Oct 05 07:44 AM Interesting, thank you, Paco. Mister Micawber