ANSWERS: 10
  • "We will send him a book" is better but that's not exactly a horrible way to say it.
  • That sentence is a passive construction, hence the reason why it's ungrammatical. "We will send him a book" is more concise and to the point.
  • He will be sent a book 'from' us?
  • "He" is the subject of this sentence, "will be" the adverb (correction: auxiliary verbs), "sent" the verb, "a book" the direct object, "by us"...I forgot what this is, lol. The grammar seems correct enough, but it is almost Yoda-like in the way of talking. It only seems wierd, because most people would say "We sent him a book". It is like saying "The TV is pleasing to me" instead of "I like the TV".
  • Grammatically, there is nothing wrong with that sentence.
  • I think the sentence is grammatically correct, but it is a bit awkward and also vague. Does it mean "he will be sent a book written by us"? or that "he will be sent a book from us". To be very clear, I would write the sentence "We will send him a book".
  • No, it is not ungrammatical although as others have pointed out, it is neither concise nor elegant. Part of the issue here is to do with the nature of "send". This verb (like "give") has a direct and an indirect object. Some people believe that the indirect object cannot be transformed to a subject in a passive sentence. This is how you would analyze the active: We will send him a book. Some will argue that "a book" is the correct subject when you transform to the passive voice. A book will be sent to him by us. They argue that you cannot say, "He will be sent...." because he is not going to be sent anywhere. It is the book that is going to be sent. Ditransitive verbs, as some call these verbs, are discussed in Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ditransitive_verb
  • The statements, "He will receive a book from us" or "we will send him a book" just feel and sound more aesthestic than the sentence you provided and the reason for this is because the word "sent" is describing something that happened in the past, whereas the information you are wanting to communicate refers to something that will happen in the future. The sentence has a lot of information - what is being sent, who is sending it, who is receiving it and when the event is happening. The two examples I have given provide the information of "the when" with consistency. Whereas there is conflict with the example you have provided and therefore doesn't flow as nicely. Your example may be grammatically correct in that it serves it's function as a complete sentence, but it is poorly constructed.
  • It should be "We will send him a book". Much better!
  • Ungrammatical and really clumsy. In English, it is correct to have your subject and verb first, then direct and indirect object. Thus, "We will send him a book."

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