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Glite Dictionary
retained object

retained object

9.7
A thing that stays in a passive sentence, usually the thing the action happens to
  • noun
  • Specialized
translation icon : objeto retenido
  • In the sentence 'She was given a gift by her friend', 'a gift' is the retained object.

Examples

  • In the sentence 'A book was given to her', 'a book' is the retained object.

  • When converting to the passive, the recipient becomes the subject, and the original direct object may become a retained object.

  • Teachers often ask students to identify the retained object in passive sentences.

  • The retained object was difficult to identify.

  • Can you explain what a retained object is?

  • When analyzing passive sentences, it's important to determine the retained object correctly.

  • In passive voice constructions, the retained object often coincides with the original indirect object.

Surface Forms

retained object singular
retained objects plural

Morphology

retained + object

The phrase transparently combines 'retained' (kept/remaining) and 'object' (the noun phrase affected by a verb), so a B1 learner would likely infer it means an object that is kept or remains. However, the precise technical sense referring to syntactic behaviour in passive constructions and correspondence to an indirect object is specialised grammatical knowledge and not fully predictable from the parts alone.

Etymology

Retained object comes from the idea that retained means 'kept' and object is the thing in the sentence. Imagine 'She gave him a gift' changed to 'He was given a gift by her' — the 'gift' stays in the 'passive sentence', so it is the retained object.