Learn English – Difference between “you were given” and “given to you”

inversionpassive-voice

I've been struggling with the difference between
– "you were given [X]"
and
– "[X] was given to you"

Is there a difference? If so, what is it? And are there some situations where one construction is better than the other?

Best Answer

Let's take the following sentence as an example:

  1. I gave you two books.

This sentence is in the pattern of:

Subject + verb + indirect object + direct object.

The sentence can be written in the pattern of:

Subject + verb + direct object + preposition + indirect object as follows:

  1. I gave two books to you.

These sentences when changed in the passive will be as follows:

  1. Two books were given to you by me.

  2. You were given two books by me.

Both the sentences are correct, without any difference in meaning.

Related Topic