The ball was put by him on the desk or The ball was put on the desk by him. I think the last choice but one of my Japanese teachers thinks the first form any ideas?
2006-10-20 13:31:05 · 17 answers · asked by brian h 2 in Education & Reference ➔ Teaching
Both of your sentences are technically correct but they both sound clumsy.
He put the ball on the desk (active voice), you've changed it to the passive which usually means that the agent ("he" in the active sentence) is not important, or of lesser importance. As we don't have a name for "he" it is doubly so. Had we had a name there could be an argument for saying "the ball was put by Jim on the desk" or "The ball was put on the desk by Jim" ie not by Paul or Ruth etc, though in both cases the active voice would seem to be more natural. If I had to choose between the two, I would opt for the second.
In your example, I would prefer "the ball was put on the desk" with no agent for the reasons stated above.
2006-10-20 15:22:02 · answer #1 · answered by fidget 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
They are both inconclusive. The first could mean that he was on the desk before the ball arrived. The second implies that the desk is next to him. He put the ball on the desk - concise, to the point and grammatically correct - don't change it!
2006-10-22 03:53:33 · answer #2 · answered by saljegi 3 · 2⤊ 0⤋
2nd, but even that is laboured.
"He put the ball on the desk" is cleaner.
The only reasons to say "The ball was put on the desk by him" is to rule out the possibility that someone or something else did the action, or it is no longer on the desk now.
You could say "The ball was put - by him - on the desk", but thats a lot of stress on him doing the action. Same with "," replacing "-".
I'd be a lot more interested in what happened next....
2006-10-20 13:33:23 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
Both are complete sentences (i.e subject and verb) so you can use either, but if you use the first sentence you should use commas eg. The ball was put, by him, on the desk. I agree with you though, the second choice is easier to read.
2006-10-22 04:51:29 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Japanese, crap, you don't need to 'spell' it out, is obviou who did what,'he put the ball on the desk' or the ball was put on the desk by >>>>>
2006-10-20 15:42:41 · answer #5 · answered by david g 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
You are getting deep into one of the refinements of English here. It is not just the order of words but the 'size' of them that is the issue, as you will see. It is one reason why we have so many slightly different words which mean exactly the same thing.
When you change it to 'The ball was put...' you only do so because you want to hide the detail of who put it there, so adding 'by him' anywhere in the sentence sounds odd.
The only correct form here is
'The ball was placed on the desk by {name eg John}'
Try it, and see if you agree.
It is wrong to use 'put' in this construction.
2006-10-20 20:23:37 · answer #6 · answered by Tertia 6 · 1⤊ 2⤋
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2016-10-16 05:47:29 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Neither. The first sentence is wrong & the second sounds clumsy.
The only sentence that sounds right is the original one - 'He put the ball on the desk'.
2006-10-20 13:47:53 · answer #8 · answered by Mr Crusty 5 · 1⤊ 1⤋
He placed the ball onto the desk.
2006-10-20 13:36:07 · answer #9 · answered by pixie007 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋
if you say "the ball was put, by him, on the desk" using commas, it is correct. however, i would use the second and it's even better to say "he put the ball on the desk"
2006-10-23 08:59:26 · answer #10 · answered by Alan B 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋