Question

1. He told the students a funny story.
2. A funny story was told the students by him.
3. A funny story was told to the students by him.
4. The students were told a funny story by him.

(#1 is an active voice sentence. When we change the active voice sentence into passive voice sentences, which ones are grammatical among from 2-4? Do we have to use 'to' as in Sentence 3?)

Answer 1

I understand the exercise of changing active into passive, but all these passive sentences read awkwardly. I don't know of any other ways to write #1 in passive, but active is always better.

I would use #s 2 and 4, but not #3.