How can I change this to passive voice?
Honey is sweet
-
2That is impossible, since A is B doesn't contain an active verb.– Kate BuntingCommented Jul 16, 2020 at 13:12
-
1To understand more, see: learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/english-grammar-reference/…– Ronald SoleCommented Jul 16, 2020 at 13:18
-
1I can't think of any natural way. Perhaps if you paraphrase it to "Honey has the property of sweetness" you could use "Sweetness is a property of honey".– PeterCommented Jul 16, 2020 at 13:21
-
2Only transitive verbs can be used in a passive expression. "Is" is not transitive.– Jack O'FlahertyCommented Jul 16, 2020 at 15:14
-
What do you think passive means?– LambieCommented Jul 16, 2020 at 22:56
Add a comment
|
2 Answers
It's not possible to directly change the example sentence into the passive voice, because there is no transitive verb that's being used in the first place.
However, the most expedient way of making it passive is to simply insert a transitive verb:
Honey is made sweet.
If the agent of the production of honey (and its sweetness) is bees, then you'd have the following.
- Active: Bees make honey sweet.
- Passive: Honey is made sweet by bees.
answered Jul 16, 2020 at 23:01
Tell your test giver that they've given you an impossible question.
Let's look at a sentence that can be turned into passive voice.
Mark (noun) drove the car (noun).
The car (noun) was driven by Mark (noun).
Let's apply this to your example sentence.
Honey (noun) is sweet (adjective).
Sweet (adjective--problem here) was been honey [by ????].
Adjectives can't be the subject of sentences. So turning it into passive voice without modification is impossible.
Copular verbs can't be passive, because they are basically being used as an "equal sign" to say X is the same as Y, or say what an attribute of Y is, and therefore there's no agent and no possibility that there can be an agent.
