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.
The table below shows examples of ditransitive verbs:
| 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 |
