The Grammaring Guide to English Grammar with Exercises

Ditransitive verbs in the passive voice

Ditransitive verbs have both a direct object and an indirect object. If the direct object is not a personal pronoun, the order of the objects is optional, but if the direct object comes first, the indirect object is preceded by a preposition, usually to:

The company paid

the customer

$500

as compensation.

The company paid

$500

to

the customer

as compensation.

If the direct object is a personal pronoun, it always comes before the indirect object:

The compensation was $500, and the company paid

it

to

the customer

without delay.

In the passive voice, either of the two objects can be the subject of the sentence. If the direct object is the subject of the passive sentence, the indirect object is preceded by a preposition:

The customer

was paid

$500

as compensation.

$500

was paid to

the customer

as compensation.

Examples of ditransitive verbs:

allow, ask, award, bake, bring, build, buy, charge, cook, forgive, give, grant, hand, leave, make, offer, order, owe, pass, pay, promise, read, save, sell, send, show, teach, tell, throw, write