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I am confused about a wh-- question.

who would you have me be loyal to?

I want to know what kind of sentence is this? A passive voice or a passive wh-- question?

what is the purpose of 'have' and 'be' in this sentence?

is "have" the auxiliary verb here or "be"?

if this is a passive voice what will be the active form of this sentence?

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  • I think it's a question sentence. And the main verb here is "have". But it's a causative verb. So you can understand the meaning superficially like that: "which person would you make me loyal to".
    – grammarian
    Commented Dec 2, 2020 at 12:52
  • 4
    Have me be loyal here means wish me to be loyal. It is not passive voice.
    – Kate Bunting
    Commented Dec 2, 2020 at 13:04
  • @grammerian your nickname made my day, I laughed out loud!
    – Andrew Tobilko
    Commented Dec 2, 2020 at 14:43
  • Why? Am I wrong?
    – grammarian
    Commented Dec 2, 2020 at 14:55
  • @grammerian it's very funny if it's a deliberate joke, or I am simply unaware of this alternative spelling
    – Andrew Tobilko
    Commented Dec 2, 2020 at 15:03

1 Answer 1

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Who would you have me be loyal to?

means

In your opinion, who should I be loyal to?

or

Who do you think I should be loyal to?

It's not passive. "to have somebody do something" (or "be something" in this case) means to convince them to do something or to arrange for them to do something.

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1
  • Thank you, clearly explained.
    – Russian Blue
    Commented Dec 2, 2020 at 15:50

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