10.18 verbs usually used in the passive
Because of their meaning, some transitive verbs are usually used in the passive. The agent of the action is usually thought to be not worth mentioning or is not known.
- He was deemed to be the guardian of the child.
- The meeting is scheduled for February 14.
- Drunken airmen were alleged to have rampaged through the hotel.
The following transitive verbs are usually used in the passive:
- be acclaimed, be alleged, be annihilated, be baffled, be born, be compressed, be conditioned, be construed, be couched, be cremated, be dazed, be deafened, be debased, be deemed, be disconcerted, be dubbed, be dwarfed, be earmarked, be empowered, be fined, be gutted, be headed, be horrified, be hospitalized, be indicted, be inundated, be jailed, be mesmerized, be misdirected, be overcome, be paralysed, be penalized, be perpetrated, be pilloried, be populated, be prized, be punctuated, be rationed, be reconciled, be reprieved, be reunited, be rumoured, be scheduled, be shipped, be shipwrecked, be short-listed, be shrouded, be staffed, be stranded, be strewn, be subsumed, be suspended, be swamped, be wounded
The following phrasal verbs are usually used in the passive:
- be bowled over, be caught up, be handed down, be pensioned off, be ploughed up, be rained off, be scaled down, be struck off, be sworn in, be taken aback, be written into
- They were bowled over by the number of visitors who came to the show.
- The journalists were taken aback by the ferocity of the language.