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I have come across occurrences of which was given me on many occasions; mostly in 19th century novels, where the mark of the dative case, to, was usually omitted. Which was given to me, on the other hand, I have stumbled on, as it were, on the printed page especially in contemporary English. My question concerning these two is actually twofold:

a) is there any semantic or stylistic difference between which was given to me and which was given me?

b) is which was given me (or which was given you, etc.) an old-fashioned way of expressing this?

Example: I asked for water, which was given me, and she then retired.

Why given me, and not given to me?

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  • Please add some more context. I assume you don't mean cases like "He has given me an idea" right?
    – terdon
    Commented Jan 20, 2014 at 18:00
  • Please clarify then. Many such cases boil down to countable vs. non-countable nouns. For example: "You have given me hope" and "You have given your car to me".
    – terdon
    Commented Jan 20, 2014 at 18:04
  • If you could give examples of sentences,it would be more clear to what your question poses.
    – Argot
    Commented Jan 20, 2014 at 18:07
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    In the 19th century, it was permissible to say "he gave it me" rather than "he gave it to me. See Ngram. I assume these grammatical constructions are related.
    – Peter Shor
    Commented Jan 20, 2014 at 18:40
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    @PeterShor: As far as I'm concerned "he gave it me" is still "permissible".
    – StoneyB on hiatus
    Commented Jan 20, 2014 at 22:11

3 Answers 3

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Google Ngrams suggests that with passive give the bare objective was greatly preferred throughout the 19th century, but was also in steady if slow decline. The crossover (the 100% line) on the graph) occurred in the 1960s, in both AmE and BrE. But it cannot be said that the bare objective is 'confined to the novels of Jane Austen': the examples given show a current incidence 40%-70% of the incidence of the corresponding prepositional datives, and in fact the prepositional uses seem to be experiencing a modest recrudescence.

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There are strong regional differences in Britain. 'Please give it me' or 'give it me back' is extensively (almost universally) used in parts of the north of England, especially Lancashire and Yorkshire. (I'm not sure about Geordies. If there are any reading please confirm). In fact it forms part of what might be described as the 'Northern British Standard'.

Down South we say 'Please give it to me'.

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  • There's also the contraction 'gimme' as in "Gimme that you little begger!" Not to mention the ABBA song 'Gimme, Gimme, Gimme' and the TV comedy of the same name. Isn't 'gimme' used dahn saaf?
    – BoldBen
    Commented Jan 17, 2017 at 8:40
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I don't think anybody answering the question really understands what the question means. The question here is whether it is necessary to put the preposition "to" or not in a passive passive - "The new pen was given (to) me by my uncle"

I think both are grammatically correct but putting "to" is more common.

Any suggestion?

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  • I think the other answers understood the question just fine, and answered it extensively and with data or dialectal information instead of just feelings... that helps.
    – LjL
    Commented Jan 17, 2017 at 2:02
  • But the accepted answer specifically provides an n-gram graph involving the passive voice.
    – LjL
    Commented Jan 17, 2017 at 2:19
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    Hi, Hiro. With regard to which form is more common, there is some chance that usage differs on this point in different parts of the world. As matters stand, your response is more of a comment (like this one) than an answer, At this site, comments should go in comment boxes, not in answer boxes. You'll be entitled to leave comments beneath any question or answer on this site when you have accumulated 50 or more reputation points. You get 5 points for each upvote that a question you post receives and 10 points for each upvote that an answer you post receives.
    – Sven Yargs
    Commented Jan 17, 2017 at 2:29

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