I was answering a question on ELL and I came across a question of my own, namely whether there are objects in passive sentences. In this case the sentence was,
Bobby was ran [sic] over by Billy's car.
Is car the object in that sentence like I thought? Or if there is an object, is it something else?
Best Answer
The direct object of an active verb is the noun or noun phrase that receives the action of the verb. So in
Bobby is the unfortunate recipient of the verb, so "Bobby" is a direct object.
When the sentence is transposed to the passive, i.e., with a verb composed of a form of "to be" and a past participle:
by definition, the subject receives the action of the verb, so there's no place for a direct object. That's why sentences in the passive don't have them.
Note that there are objects of things other than verbs. For example, prepositions. In a passive sentence, the actor (formerly the subject in the active sentence) may be relegated to the object of the preposition by.