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In "story time", the teacher reads stories and students listen. Now there is a child who wants to listen to animal stories.
Can I use the phrase "to be read" in the following sentence.
"Hannah wished to be read about wild animals." Or "Hannah wished to listen about wild animal stories."
Which of the two sentences sound natural? In case both are wrong, then how can I phrase it in a natural way?
"Hannah wished to be read" does not make sense—a book is read, a person is not. You could say "Hannah wished to be read to about..."
Similarly "wished to listen about..." doesn't really work. Again, you need an object: "wished to listen to a story about..." would be correct.
As a native speaker I would say neither of these, though. And "wished" is not the word I would choose either. I would say:
Hannah wanted to hear a story about wild animals.
The related phrase that would work best here is "have a story read".
Hannah wanted to have a story about wild animals read to her.
But allow for context
Hannah wanted to be read a story about wild animals
Sounds clear and meaningful. I would understand this without problem, and I don't find it particularly strange.
