Learn English – How to join two passive sentences

grammarpassive-voice

Let's say I want to join the following two passive sentences:

"He was given a book."
"He was asked to read it."

I am unsure which of the two sentences below are grammatically correct:

"He was given a book and asked to read it."
"He was given a book and was asked to read it."

Best Answer

Both sentences are correct. The first is ambiguous.

"He was given a book and asked to read it."

This could be understood as "He was given a book, and he asked to read it." or it could be understood as "He was given a book and he was asked to read it". The context could resolve the ambiguity.

"He was given a book and was asked to read it."

There is no such ambiguity here, but it is slightly longer.

Both sentences are possible, both are grammatically correct. Both could be used by native English speakers.

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