Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[jins]

Can we say �Fun was made of me by them.� instead of �They made fun of me.� ?

[pugachevV]

You can. It is the passive voice. However, the original active voice is much more dynamic.
I would advise you, as a general rule, to avoid using the passive wherever possible.

[nostril5]

I agree with Pugachev that the passive voice is overused, but I think your problem is that you are breaking up 'make fun of'. By themselves, 'make' and 'fun' have specific meanings, but togther they have a new meaning (to ridicule), i.e. it is an idiom. By using the passive and breaking up the idiom, the meaning is lost.

Think about the idiom "to feel blue". I felt blue when I saw my exam results." is fine, but "Blue was felt by me when I saw my exam results." is crazzzzzzzzzzzzzyyyyyyyyyyy!


This is not a 100% rule. If the idiom combines words with the same meaning when seperated, you can use the passive, but if the idiom cambines words to create a completely new meaning, the passive will not work.

I hope that helps.

Mike

[Lorikeet]

Also, you need to have a reason to use a passive. "They made fun of me" is much better. However, I can imagine "I was made fun of." as being acceptable if you don't want to mention who made fun of you, but you want the listener to understand the situation.

[nostril5]

Sorry, yes, Lorikeet is right.
The idiom in passive is Ok. The problem was breaking up (splitting) the idiom. When 'fun' became the subject, the sentence became strange.
So, "They made fun of me. " and "I was made fun of." are fine, but "Fun was made of me." is not OK.