Using passive voice

Passive voice with attitude verbs

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Types of attitude verbs

Attitude verbs can be classified into two types, depending on whether, in an active clause, the person who feels the attitude (the feeler) is the subject, or whether the thing that stimulates the attitude (the stimulus) is the subject:

We    liked  him  very much. (Bank of English)
feeler             stimulus

Progress so far has pleased allied commanders. (Bank of English)
  stimulus                                                       feeler

We can call these two classes of attitude verbs the like type (feeler as subject: "The feeler likes the stimulus") and the please type (stimulus as subject: "The stimulus pleases the feeler").

Both types can be used with passive voice:

Like type

She was disliked by some of those who had developed a more leisurely attitude towards their work. (Bank of English)

Please type

Craig-Martin has always been fascinated by the nuts and bolts of art. (Microconcord Corpus A)

Clauses with attitude verbs in fact much more commonly begin with the feeler as subject than with the stimulus as subject. Therefore the commonest clauses representing attitudes are active voice with like type verbs, and passive voice with please type verbs.

For further information, focusing particularly on the grammatical patterns associated with attitude verbs, see Representing thinking, perceiving, liking and desiring: Using verb patterns to represent likes and dislikes.

For information about some of the problems that students have with attitude verbs, see Using passive voice: Students' problems (p 5).

Introduction
Types of attitude verbs
Using prepositions other than by