I was knit a sweater

Question

Can to knit be used in this passive structure? The meaning I want this sentence to have is Someone knit a sweater to for me.

1. I was knit a sweater.

I know that to give can be used in this passive structure, for example:

▪︎ I was given a toy.

Answer 1

Collins dictionary unequivocally asserts that the Past Participle is always knitted, but they have a "usage note" saying that knit as a Past Tense is acceptable in the context of bones that knit together (in the past).

I think Collins is simply wrong, and here's a usage chart to support my position...

There's nothing inherently wrong with using the passive as per OP's example, which (Collins notwithstanding) is perfectly valid using knit or knitted. There's no doubt the verb is "defective", but some speakers will model the Past Tense after He hit me yesterday where others match it to He fitted the catflap yesterday.

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Apologies for using an image, but here's usingenglish.com...

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...and here's a final word from grammar.com...

...officially and especially in UK English¹, “knitted” is just as correct as “knit” in past tense, both in past simple and in past participle. Formed by adding “-ed” after doubling the last consonant, “knitted” is equally frequently used in the English vocabulary as “knit” in past tense, and there is no restriction or context that requires the use of one or the other version.

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¹ I have no evidence (or "gut feel") that there's any significant BrE/AmE usage split here, so I don't necessarily endorse that assertion.

Answer 2

Your sentence is perfect, and means exactly what you intended it to mean.

It sounds even more acceptable to me than "I was knitted a sweater" (which other posters are suggesting you to use based on what Collins dictionary says about knit's conjugations).

When I read the title before opening your question, I understood that it means Someone knit a sweater for me. I thought an English learner had read this sentence somewhere and was asking about how to understand this passive construction, which is extra confusing as far as passives go because the verb has irregular conjugations and variable transitivity. But actually you created it - awesome!

Most people seem to find knitted more acceptable though, rather than knit, so you may want to change it. I was surprised by the Collins dictionary entry and the top answer and comments here, I didn't know I'm apparently in a small minority for never inflecting knit.

Apparently the past tense form of this verb is sexist.

Answer 3

No, you shouldn’t say this. Some native speakers might say it, but most would find it awkward, and it’s a bit nonstandard.

There are two independent issues here:

• should the past participle be knit or knitted?
• can you use the structure I was given a sweater (the “ditransitive passive”) with knit[ted]?

Other answers treat the first question well: the traditional standard past participle in most contexts is knitted, but knit is also common, so I wouldn’t call it wrong.

However the ditransitive passive form doesn’t work with knit. Your example I was given a sweater is fine; but this form works better with some verbs than others. Verbs like this that can take two direct objects (as in Sue gave me a sweater, Sue knit me a sweater) are called ditransitive, and they generally fall into two classes according whether the first object can be rephrased with to (like Sue gave a sweater to me) or with for (like Sue knitted a sweater for me). The passive form Tom was VERBed a NOUN is generally standard with to-type ditransitives, but not with for-type ditransitives. So you can say I was given a cake, I was sent flowers, I was offered a loan, but NOT I was baked a cake, I was ordered flowers, I was arranged a loan. And as Peter Kirkpatrick’s answer notes, ditransitive knit is a for-type, not a to-type.

Passives of for-type ditransitives aren’t completely wrong — they do occur in native speaker usage — but they are rare, and usually feel awkward. Going to a very authoritative reference, Huddleston and Pullum (Cambridge Grammar of the English Language, 2002, Ch.4 §4.3 Ditransitive clauses) write “many speakers find [examples like I was ordered a book] marginally possible”.

Answer 4

Yes, the verb to knit can be used in a passive sense. However we need to tidy up your grammar, which is not correct.

Collins Dictionary gives these words as the tenses of knit:

• knits (present tense)
• knitting (present participle)
• knitted (past tense and past participle)

Collins does list one example where the past tense can be 'knit' or knitted', but this is the technical sense of broken bones knitting back together.

So for your basic example (assuming we are talking about knitting done in the past) we would say, "Someone knitted a sweater."

Also, we would say "knitted a sweater for me" (not to me). If you're not sure why, search for articles on indirect objects in a sentence.

So the full sentence becomes "Someone knitted a sweater for me." Then we can change the form of the sentence from active to passive like this:

• "The sweater was knitted (by X) for me."

You can also say:

• "I was knitted a sweater."

...which has the same grammar as "I was given a sweater." It means that I was the one for whom the sweater was knitted.