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I have this sentence:

They pick the wastages packed every morning.

What would be its passive voice?

The packed wastages are picked every morning by them.

Or

The wastages are picked packed every morning by them.

In my opinion it should be the former, in accordance with the rule:

subject (object in active voice) + are + finite verb + object (subject in passive voice)

but I don't know why, I'm still not sure.

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  • Wastage is wrong here, please see a dictionary.
    – Lambie
    Dec 14, 2017 at 20:02

2 Answers 2

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I have never heard the word "wastages" but in the sentence

They pick up the wastage packed every morning.

the object is the "wastages which are packed"

So

The wastages packed every morning are picked up by them.

is the correct passive version as posted by Mick

If the wastages are packed at another time it could be

The packed wastages are picked up every morning by them.

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  • They picked up the packed wastage every morning. There is only picking up, no picking, this is not apples and wastage does not take an s.
    – Lambie
    Dec 14, 2017 at 16:29
  • Could be - American Pickers pick, they do not pick up. Anyway I changed to pick up
    – mplungjan
    Dec 14, 2017 at 16:51
  • wastage is misused. I just looked it up. I think they basically pick through stuff people throw out. That is not "wastage". It's junk, and if you see a pile of it, you pick through it. That reality series American Pickers is about picking through stuff, junk, things people throw out.
    – Lambie
    Dec 14, 2017 at 20:01
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I first read the first line as I hate this sentence...

Since it says,

They pick the wastages packed every morning.

rather than,

They pick the packed wastages every morning.

it should be read as,

They pick the wastages [which are] packed every morning.

Here, packed is not an adjective of wastages. Thus,

The wastages [which are] packed every morning are picked by them.

or,

The wastages packed every morning are picked by them.

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